Last month France became the first country to officially remove transsexuality from classification as a long term psychiatric mental illness, recognising it instead as medical disorder.
French Health Minister, Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin announced the move to de-list gender dysphoria as a mental illness in the lead up to the International Day of Action Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO) on May 17, 2009.
The proposed reform was formally ratified by the French government on February 10 this year.
Commenting on the historic move, WA Gender Projects’ Aram Hosie told OUTinPerth that the project ‘welcomes and applauds the decision of the French Government to remove transsexualism from its list of psychiatric orders.
‘It is pleasing to note that in making this change the French Government has created a classification for transsexualism as a “general medical condition†thus ensuring that trans folk are still able to access the medical care they require,’ said Hosie.
While the change has been hailed as a major step for trans rights, the decision is likely to have limited international impact.
The two major psychiatric diagnostic classification systems used in many nations including Australia, The World Heath Organisation’s International Classification of Disorders (ICD) and the American Psychiatric Association’s DSM, still list gender identity disorder (GID) as a mental illness.
Upcoming reviews of the ICD-10 and the DSM-IV do not appear likely to revise the classification.
The revision of the DSM criteria around sexuality and gender has been controversial, with organisations such as Ex-Gay Watch expressing concern over the appointment of Dr Kenneth Zucker as head of the DSM V work group for Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders.
Dr Zucker is well known for his work on reparative therapy for children with GID and his work has been widely quoted by the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) which claims to ‘heal’ homosexuality.
The working group is not due to finalise their report until 2013.
The APA removed homosexuality from the list of mental illnesses in 1973, with WHO belatedly updating the classification in 1990.
Zoe Carter
