Anger in Peru over decree describing transsexuality as mental disorder [Video]

The Peruvian government is under fire from LGBTQ+ groups which have called a protest Friday against a new decree listing transsexualism as a “mental disorder.”

The government on May 10 updated its list of insurable health conditions — which since 2021 has offered benefits for mental health treatment — to include services for transgender people.

In the decree, the health ministry describes the condition as a “mental disorder” — an obsolete term long officially abandoned by he World Health Organization.

A demonstration has been called for Lima on Friday, the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia.

The ministry has insisted it does not consider gender diversity as an illness, and in a statement expressed “our respect for gender identities and our rejection of the stigmatization of sexual diversity.”

It said the decree was meant merely to extend mental health coverage “for the full exercise of the right to health …