UNITED NATIONS: The World Health Organization (WHO), a UN agency, will no longer categorize being transgender as a “mental disorder”, after a resolution to amend its health guidelines was approved May 25.

The approved a resolution to remove “gender identity disorder” from its global manual of diagnoses, in a move that will have a “liberating effect on transgender people worldwide,” says Human Rights Watch.

According to the newly-revised version of the International Classification of Diseases (known as ICD-11), published by the WHO, “gender identity disorders” have been reframed as “gender incongruence.” Gender nonconformity is now included in a chapter on sexual health, rather than being listed with “mental disorders” as was the case previously. Activists are now hoping that the ICD-11 will be implemented by the WHO’s 194 member states over the next three years.

Gender incongruence can be described as a feeling of anguish when an individual’s identity conflicts with the sex they were assigned at birth.

Moving the disorder into WHO’s new chapter for sexual health will also help lift discrimination, a major barrier to accessing prevention services, HIV testing and treatment and care.

“We expect that this reclassification will impact very positively the wrong perception that some forms of gender diversity are pathologies, or sickness, and that it will facilitate access to better health care,” said Victor Madrigal-Borloz, Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and Dainius P?ras, Special Rapporteur on the right to health.
The UN experts welcomed the “major breakthrough” and called on States to “review their medical classifications and adopt strong proactive measures” to eliminate the social stigma associated with gender diversity.

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