According
to the World Health Organization, it is. People who are not satisfied with the
sex they were born and feel they should have the opposite sex are diagnosed by psychologists with Gender Identity Disorder (GID).
The American Psychiatric
Association defines a mental disorder as “...a
health condition characterized by significant dysfunction in an individual’s
cognitions, emotions, or behaviors that reflects a disturbance in the
psychological, biological, or developmental processes underlying mental
functioning.” Nevertheless, latest medical studies on brain structures of transsexual
people could prove that these persons have the brain structures of the opposite
sex; in other words, their brain structure corresponds to the sex they feel
identified with.
Furthermore, in 2008,
a group of Australian researchers found a genetic difference related to the
androgen receptor gene in male-to-female transsexuals that could provoke debility
in testosterone signals.
These studies indicate that Transsexualism is not actually a mental illness, since there are physical aspects involved.
These studies indicate that Transsexualism is not actually a mental illness, since there are physical aspects involved.
Actually, a petition made
by a female-to-male transsexual called Maxwell
Zachs at Change.org asking
for declassifying Transsexualism as a mental disorder from the World Health Organization
has been signed by more than 42.000 people. It is part of an International campaign in
which Trans people claim that they are not sick, they are just people who were
born in a different body, and that the classification of Transsexualism as a mental disorder
just contributes to discrimination.
Here's the link to the full petition of Maxwell Zachs: http://www.change.org/petitions/world-health-organisation-who-we-are-trans-not-sick
Do you consider that
Transsexualism is a mental disorder? What do you think about Maxwell Zachs's petition?
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ReplyDeleteI strongly agree with Maxwell petition. When we don't understand somenthing besides from fearing it, we should probably imagine that there's more likely an unknown or undiscovered scientific explanation to it. There's also very common in history that people refuse to embrace scientific truths for the sake of tradition or simply because people are scared from what they cannot explain themselves. Of course, when these people are the ones who decide for so many millions of people, they should be a little bit more open to accept scientific truths and keep the pace with new findings, since their decisions and fears(in this particular case) affect us all.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion transsexualism is not a mental disorder. I've heard of studies that found that female and male brains were different, regardless the body they were born with. According to these studies it's the brain what make us feel women or men, not the body.
ReplyDeleteAbout your final question, I have to agree with Maxwell. That's exactly how I feel about this issue and I hope his petition be accepted in a short period of time.