WHO Makes History For LGBTQ Community

It is a historical milestone for the LGBTQ community as the World Health Organization is no longer classifying transgender as a “mental disorder.” A revised version of WHO’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) changed “gender identity disorder” to “gender incongruence” — or gender dysphoria, and it is now part of the chapter on sexual health.

“Gender identity disorder” had previously been included in the chapter on mental disorders. But now, gender incongruence in the updated manual is characterized as a “marked incongruence between an individual’s experienced/expressed gender and assigned sex” at birth.

Although the change was announced last summer, a resolution to amend the health guidelines was officially approved last Saturday.

(Photo Credit: Bailey C.)

Dr. Lale Say, a reproductive health expert with WHO, said the decision to remove being transgender from the mental health disorders section was because there was more of an understanding that it was not actually a mental health condition. In the same token, Dr. Jack Drescher, who served on the working group for the manual update, said that the misclassification was a mental disorder “contributes to precarious legal status” as well as “human rights violations.”

This new change is expected to have a huge ripple effect around the world and governments in other countries have been encouraged to reform their national medical systems and laws.

By: Maytinee Kramer