Transgender Identity No Longer Considered a Mental illness

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The World Health Organization (WHO) released the latest classification of diseases called ICD-11, which state that being transgender is no longer a mental illness.

The term replacing the previous ICD-10’s “transsexualism” is called “gender incongruence,” according to Forbes.This is when a person experiences a long-term incongruence in their gender and their assigned sex. It has been moved out of the disorders section, and into the sexual health conditions section. 

“The rationale being that while evidence is now clear that it is not a mental disorder, and indeed classifying it in this can cause enormous stigma for people who are transgender, there remain significant health care needs that can best be met if the condition is coded under the ICD,” The WHO stated, according to Forbes.

The revisions under ICD-11 will go into effect on January 1, 2022.