One year ago, the World Health Assembly approved the eleventh version of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11). After more than 10 years of political mobilization, all categories related to trans and gender diverse people were removed from the chapter on mental disorders.
Although this is a historic achievement, there are still key issues to address on the road to full depathologization, including the new category of “gender incongruence” in the ICD-11, the challenges posed by legal pathologization at the country level, and the anti-gender movements who promote re-pathologization in their battle against what they call “gender ideology.”
Moreover, current challenges faced by trans and gender diverse people around the world in relation to COVID-19 show that the persistence of pathologization is not only grounded in pervasive institutional cissexism; it is also deeply linked to racial and socioeconomic injustice. Global and collective initiatives to resist, confront, and dismantle pathologization are more needed today than ever.
Facilitator: Mauro Cabral Grinspan (GATE)