New horizons for 2SLGBTQ+ care

A two-day leadership training program in Quebec has fired up pharmacists Alex Tang and Tristan Lai on their next steps in a lifelong journey to help both new and veteran pharmacists better serve 2SLGBTQ+ communities.

Tang and Lai are both lecturers at the University of British Columbia (UBC). They are co-leads of the university’s PrideRx curriculum, which launched in 2022 and is one of Canada’s first SOGIE (Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression)-inclusive pharmacy curriculums. This year, the program received a D2L Innovation Award in Teaching and Learning from the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.

In 2024, Tang and Lai applied for—and received—grants from the Canadian Foundation for Pharmacy’s Wellspring Pharmacy Leadership Awards to help cover the costs of attending the Effective Leadership program at the McGill Executive Institute, part of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec.

“In pharmacy, there aren’t many leaders who are part of the 2SLGBTQ+ communities. It is important for us to explore our own leadership,” says Tang.

One of their biggest takeaways from the intensive, two-day, in-person program? That leadership is all about teamwork, or co-development.

“It’s a learning method where people work together throughout the process of identifying challenges and coming up with solutions. And it leverages people’s different areas of knowledge,” says Lai.

The program also emphasized the value of psychological safety for teams. “Psychological safety refers to the shared belief that all team members can feel comfortable to speak up without the fear of negative consequences,” says Tang. “As PrideRx continues to expand and we work with various collaborators and partners, it’s important to maintain this kind of safety—especially when we engage with our 2SLGBTQ+ communities, because historically they’ve experienced a lot of mistrust with the medical system.”

“People with lived and living experience, or people from within targeted communities, are really the ones we need to consult with to deliver any form of initiative to enhance their experience or the quality of their care,” adds Lai.

Lai and Tang are especially excited about their upcoming initiatives outside the classroom. While it’s too early to share details, work has begun on the co-development of a tool for practising pharmacists. Meanwhile, two accredited modules on metabolic health in transgender and gender diverse populations are expected to become available in Spring 2026.

“It will take some time for our UBC graduates to create the critical mass in the workforce to impact changes. So we are looking at what we can do in the meantime to ensure pharmacists already in practice are able to deliver dignified and compassionate pharmaceutical care to our queer and trans communities,” says Lai.

“Through this leadership program, we’ve really learned the importance of building genuine relationships with all the people we’ve partnered with in the past. We will carry that spirit forward for our future work,” adds Tang.