Public Health Minister asks international health organizations to stop pathologizing trans people
Carina Vance, Ecuador’s Minister of Public Health, sent a letter yesterday to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Panamerican Health Organization (PAHO), urging them to revise their definitions of transsexualism as a disease in their Classification of Diseases documents.
Vance wrote:
"In my capacity as Minister of Public Health of Ecuador and in defense of the rights of the most vulnerable, discriminated against and excluded from our society and taking into account the principles of equality, fairness and justice established in our Constitution, in multiple international treaties and the Charter of Human Rights, I am writing to you ... to ask for mediation with the respective office of the WHO in Geneva and Washington and PAHO collaborating centers ... in order to revise the definitions and notes as well as the withdrawal of categories and subcategories of ICD-10 that pathologize transsexuality since they violate the right to equality, non- discrimination, autonomy, freedom, identity, dignity, security, freedom of thought, expression and conscience, work and the full development of the human personality of these social groups.”
Vance goes on to detail the clauses Ecuador finds problematic, including those dealing with transvestism, childhood gender dysphoria, disorders of sexual preference, and other disorders of psychosexual development.
The full letter (in Spanish and English) can be read at the Silueta X website.
Vance supported her letter by citing the 2006 Yogyakarta Principles (Indonesia) and the 2008 Socumes statement (Cuba).
