The world Health Organization (WHO), a specialized agency of the United Nations concerned with international public health, states that being transgender is no longer classified as a mental illness. There is nothing wrong with it, and they apparently had it wrong for ages.

In the newest version of the ICD, the WHO “has removed trans-related identities from a list of mental disorders, reclassifying them under ‘Conditions Related to Sexual Health’.

The World Health Organization writes:

Gender incongruence, meanwhile, has also been moved out of mental disorders in the ICD, into sexual health conditions. The rationale being that while evidence is now clear that it is not a mental disorder, and indeed classifying it in this can cause enormous stigma for people who are transgender.

Zealand Human Rights Commission spokesperson Taine Polkinghorne says:

This is fantastic news. It will be crucial in reducing the stigma around trans and gender diverse people. Belonging to the trans or gender diverse community does not equate to having a mental disorder. We should not be pathologized nor discriminated against.

USA today reports that Members of the transsexual community go through a much higher rate of mental health related problems than the rest of the Public, which contradicts WHO slightly:

Suicide attempts are alarmingly common among transgender individuals … 41% try to kill themselves at some point in their lives, compared with 4.6% of the general public.

More than a dozen other surveys of transgender people worldwide since 2001 have found similarly high rates, and the problem has grown more visible since Caitlyn Jenner’s coming out raised awareness about transgender health issues overall.

LGBT groups however are all smiles:

“This is the result of tremendous effort by trans and gender diverse activists from around the world to insist on our humanity, and I am elated that the WHO agrees that gender identity is not a mental illness,” said Julia Ehrt, Executive Director of Transgender Europe.

In other news, the same World Health Organization has also classified people who play video games in excess as has having a mental health disorder in their new diagnosis. The NY Post reports:

The World Health Organization officially added video-game addiction — characterized by “a pattern of persistent or recurrent gaming behavior” that “takes precedence over other life interests” — to its International Classification of Diseases database over the weekend.

Video games trigger the same deep-seated pleasure-reward center of our brains that controls hunger, thirst and sexual desire — which makes them prime material to get hooked on, according to Rutgers University psychiatry professor and chair Dr. Petros Levounis.

“When these same pathways get overexcited and end up getting hijacked by a drug or behavioral addiction, they get out of control and cause people to lose sight of what’s sane and what’s not,”

For the past decade, physicians, researchers and health insurers have used the World Health Organization as a reference tool when addressing some 55,000 diseases, injuries and causes of death worldwide. So forgive me for being baffled that playing too many video games is a dangerous mental health disorder while wanting to chop off your Winkie and dress up as a girl is and I quote ” not equate to having a mental disorder”. What exactly is going on out there? Sound off in the comments.

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