The World Health Organization won’t classify being transgender as a “mental disorder” anymore.
The United Nations’ health agency approved moving “gender identity disorders” from “mental disorders” to a section on sexual health in its newly revised version of the International Classification of Diseases, the ICD-11, its manual that catalogs diagnoses and symptoms. The move, which was approved on Saturday by the World Health Assembly, also will use the term “gender incongruence” to describe being transgender.
“The WHO’s removal of ‘gender identity disorder’ from its diagnostic manual will have a liberating effect on transgender people worldwide,” LGBT rights director at Human Rights Watch Graeme Reid said in a statement Monday. “Governments should swiftly reform national medical systems and laws that require this now officially outdated diagnosis.”
The World Health Assembly, which represents 194 member states, said members agreed that the changes will take effect by Jan. 1, 2022.
The World Health Organization announced last summer that the organization was moving toward the change to reduce stigma associated with being transgender so more people seek out treatment, the organization’s adolescents and at-risk populations team coordinator Dr. Lale Say said last year.
According to the World Health Organization, the ICD-11 is the “foundation for the identification of health trends and statistics globally, and the international standard for reporting diseases and health conditions.”
[Also read: Supreme Court declines to take up transgender rights case]
