WHO Has Removed Transgender from List of Mental Health Conditions
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has removed being transgender from its list of recognised metal health conditions. The decision was approved on May 25 by the World Health Assembly, a governing body of WHO made up of representatives from 194 member states.
The decision should soon trickle down into national politics around the world.
“The World Health Organisation’s removal of ‘gender identity disorder’ from its diagnostic manual will have a liberating effect on transgender people worldwide,” said Graeme Reidfrom Human Rights Watch.
“Governments should swiftly reform national medical systems and laws that require this now officially outdated diagnosis.
“Transgender people are fighting stigma and discrimination that can be traced in part to medical systems that have historically diagnosed expressions of gender non-conformity as a mental pathology.
“But it’s the stigma, discrimination, and bullying—and not anything inherent in gender nonconformity—that can inflict mental health problems in transgender people.”
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