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Europe’s Parliament Pushes For Reclassification of Transsexual

The European Parliament is pushing for the World Health Organization to stop classifying trans people as mentally ill. Currently, gender identity disorder is classified as a “mental and behavioral disorder” according to the WHO’s International Classification of Diseases. However, many trans people and clinicians prefer the term “gender dysphoria”. Research has not been able to indicate a specific reason for gender dysphoria, but it is believed to be triggered by genetic and hormonal reasons.

The WHO’s International Classification of Diseases is under review and will be finalized in 2015. It should be noted that it was not until 1990- almost twenty years after this was removed in the United States- that homosexuality was removed as a mental illness from that list.

It was Dutch MEP Emine Bozkurt who authored that amendment and stated that “Transgender identities are still considered a mental disorder by the World Health Organisation. This must be changed urgently, and certainly by the time the next version comes into effect in 2015. Transgender people wishing to live in a body that matches their identity are of course entitled to medical treatment and its benefits, but the negative stigma surrounding them must stop.”

Spanish MEP Raul Romeva I Rueda, vicepresident of the LGBT intergroup, stated “Considering transgender people mentally ill means they are not free to decide for themselves, and are often disrespected by the medical profession, their employers and their families. This call sends one clear message to the commission and the WHO: the pathologisation of gender identity must stop, as the pathologisation of homosexuality ended in 1990.”

Via Pink News