As of today, being #transgender is no longer considered a mental disorder!
The #WorldHealthOrganzation declared that gender incongruence will now be classified as a sexual health condition in its newly-released edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD).
According to the ICD, gender incongruence is “characterized by a marked and persistent incongruence between an individual’s experienced gender and the assigned sex.” An example of this is a person who is born with female genitalia and is biologically female but does not identify as female, although not every trans person has gender incongruence.
“It was taken out from the mental health disorders because we had a better understanding that this wasn’t actually a mental health condition and leaving it there was causing stigma,” said Dr. Lale Say, coordinator of WHO’s Adolescents and at-Risk Populations team. “So in order to reduce the stigma while also ensuring access to necessary health interventions, this was placed in a different chapter.”
This is a big leap for the trans community as this announcement will hopefully encourage others to be more respectful and understanding rather than discriminatory.
TSR STAFF: Talia O. @theclosetratchet on IG
