World Health Organization Removes Transgender from Mental Disorders

In a long overdue move, the World Health Organization (WHO) has finally stopped classifying being transgender as a mental disorder.

The decision was first announced last June, when the WHO deleted all relevant categories from  the 11th revision of the International Classification of Disease, but final approval was still required by the World Health Assembly.

That was received through a vote last week, though the changes will not officially go into effect until January 1, 2022.

“Gender identity disorders” will now be referred to as “gender incongruence” in the manual, and will be addressed in a chapter on sexual health rather than disorders.

“The WHO’s removal of ‘gender identity disorder’ from its diagnostic manual will have a liberating effect on transgender people worldwide,” said the LGBT rights director at Human Rights Watch, Graeme Reid. “Governments should swiftly reform national medical systems and laws that require this now officially outdated diagnosis.”

His statement references the fact that a number of governments require transgender individuals to receive a diagnosis of a so-called “gender disorder” before they are permitted to follow through with certain aspects of their transition such as changing their name and gender on government documents.

This latest win for transgender advocates comes just as President Trump tries to infringe on even more trans rights. Last Friday, his administration made a proposal that would essentially sanction health care providers discriminating against trans folks by specifically redefining “sex” in the list of protected classes to no longer include “gender identity” as the Obama administration previously declared.

Only two days prior, his administration proposed a rule that would allow federally funded homeless shelters to discriminate against transgender people for a number of reasons, including religious beliefs.