France: Transexualism is not a Mental Illnesses
France has become the first country in the world to remove gender identity disorder, also known as transexualism, from its list of officially recognised mental illnesses. The news was reported in the French national daily Le Figaro and by the AFP newswire in French and English.
Excerpt translated by Mind Hacks from the Spanish-language AFP newswire report:
The Minister of Health, Roselyne Bachelot, had announced on 16th May 2009, before the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, that transexualism would not be not considered a psychiatric disorder in France.
On that occasion, numerous personalities from the world of politics and science had signed an article that appeared in the press to petition the World Health Organisation to stop "considering transexuals as affected by mental illness".
"France is the first country in the world that does not consider transexualism as a mental illness" said Joël Bedos, French representative of IDAHO (International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia), to AFP on Friday. "It's historic", added Philippe Caste, spokesperson for the 'Interasociativa lesbiana, gay, bi y trans'. "It was something very important and was greatly anticipated since the promise was made" added Roselyne Bachelot.
The prospect of the diagnoses being removed in all countries might be a double-edge sword as being diagnosed as mentally ill is a requirement to obtain sex-reassignment in some places. The removal of the diagnosis could raise fears that the procedure may become less accessible.
The move by France, however, does not de-list the diagnoses from the World Health Organisation's ICD-10 classification or the American Psychiatric Association's DSM and, in fact, the draft DSM-V only slightly modifies the criteria for the diagnoses in children and adults although does rename it 'gender incongruence'.