WHO Changes Stance on Transgender Issue

It may be hard to believe but until this point being transgender was considered as a mental illness, but The World Health Organization is making a change.

WHO is making the first revision of the International Classification of Diseases since 1992 to remove “gender identity disorder” from the mental health classification. They chose to change “gender identity disorder” as “gender incongruence” and reclassifying it from mental health disorder to a sexual health issue.

Gender incongruence characterizes feelings of conflict between the gender someone is born with and the different gender that one chooses with life experience. The hope with this new change in classification that they can shows the difference between transgender people and people who are confused with their gender orientation.

The new edition of the International Classification of Diseases they added some new diseases that are prevalent to modern problems, including gaming addiction. These changes show that WHO is changing the ICD-11 for diseases that are conflicting to these modern times, including more diagnoses that afflict modern medicine.

WHO hopes that this change will remove stigma and foster acceptance for the LGBTQ community. Many are praising for this change leaving some to wonder how this change has yet to happen until now. Check out the video above for more details on the new changes to the ICD-11 edition.