WHO: Transgender Identity Not A Mental Health Disorder

First Posted: Jul 28, 2016 05:54 AM EDT

In a long, overdue move, the World Health Organization is now making a move to declassify transgender identity as a mental disorder in its list of medical conditions.

.@WHO considers removing #transgender identity from list of mental disorders. https://t.co/oLefEgEkg2 #LGBT pic.twitter.com/5MwXXxq3Gc

— UCSF Medical Center (@UCSFHospitals) July 28, 2016

According to The New York Times, there had been a new study that supported the proposal of deleting it from its decades-old designation. The change had been approved by each of the committees that have already considered it so far, and it is already under review for the next edition of the organization's code book, which classifies diseases and influences the treatment of patients nationwide.

The study, published in The Lancet Psychiatry, said that the social rejection and violence that many transgenders experience is the primary source of their mental distress - not the other way around. Fox News said that in simpler terms, the distress that transgender people feel is from being treated with prejudice, not because of their inherent transgender identity. This distinction matters because of the implication of how transgender people are treated in a healthcare setting, as well as how they are viewed in society.

The research found that 76 percent of the 250 participants they interviewed reported to have experienced social rejection, and 63 percent said that they have been victims of violence as a result of their gender identity - and these even occurred in their own homes and within their own families.

The authors of the study said that if transgender people are viewed to have mental illness, they will be forced to seek psychiatric care rather than the physical one that they actually seek. They could also be denied "decision-making authority" to them in matters ranging from changing legal documents to child custody, and even reproduction.

Rebeca Robles, the lead author of the study said that the importance of the study is to reduce stigmatization and victimization of these people, and hopefully, "the removal of transgender diagnoses from the classification of mental disorders can be a useful part of those efforts."