The Peruvian government has officially classified transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people as “mentally disabled.”
The controversial decision was taken to ensure that the country’s public health services can “guarantee full mental health medical care” to the trans community, Peru’s Ministry of Health explained: According to the Telegraph.
The legislation would change language in essential health insurance plans to reflect that transgender and intersex people suffer from mental disorders. LGBTQ+ outlet Pink News reported..
Despite the changes, transgender and other LGBTQ+ people will not be forced to undergo conversion therapy, the Ministry of Health insisted in a statement released Friday, the newspaper reported.
However, LGBTQ+ activist groups across Peru denounced the decision as a major setback in the fight for their rights and safety.
“100 years after the decriminalization of homosexuality, @Minsa_Peru has nothing better to do than include transgender people in the category of mental illness,” said OutfestPeru director Jheinser Pacaya. I wrote to X.
“We are demanding it and we will not rest until it is abolished,” they added.
Percy Mayta-Tristan, a medical researcher at Lima’s Southern University of Sciences, told the Telegraph that the decision showed a lack of awareness of the complexity of LGBTQ+ issues.
“We cannot ignore the context in which this is happening in an ultra-conservative society, where the LGBT community has no rights and labeling them mentally ill opens the door to conversion therapy. ” he explained.
