The United Nations is an international governmental group of which most countries across the globe are members. Better known as the U.N., the United Nations tries to keep peace throughout the world, build friendships between states, and oversee countries around the world working together.
The United Nations operates the World Health Organization, a public health organization that is dedicated to keeping the world healthy across international lines. One thing that the World Health Organization, also known as the WHO, does is maintain a database of diseases, disorders, syndromes, and other ailments in the form of a desk reference known as the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems.
Right now, the publication is in its 11th edition. To signify which edition of the book one is talking about, its name is shortened significantly down to ICD-11.
The World Health Assembly adopted the ICD-11 this weekend, meaning the reference will officially go into effect three-odd years from now, on Jan. 1, 2022.
In the past decade or so, transgender people’s rights have become of major concern to many countries, including the United States. Before, professionals and laypeople alike thought that trans people had mental health issues that made them want to be the opposite sex. However, modern society is realizing that trans people do not, in fact, have mental health issues insofar as their gender identities go.
The World Health Organization used to refer to transgender people as having “gender incongruence,” a mental health issue that was tucked away among some of the worst mental health issues under its mental disorders chapter. Now, after the legislative body of the World Health Organization voted on whether to treat transgender people differently, it’s clear that the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems will more transgender issues to its chapter on sexual health as opposed to its chapter for mental disorders.
The WHO’s Adolescents and At-Risk Populations team’s coordinator, Dr. Lale Say, realized along with her colleagues that leaving the idea of gender incongruence under mental health issues wouldn’t do anything but cause stigmatization, which is why she and company felt like the World Health Organization should move it to another section of its world-famous book.
The last time the ICD modified one of its classifications about sexuality was in 1990, when the WHO stopped considering non-straight sexual orientation as a mental disorder.
