Peru’s New Classification Labels Transgender Individuals as ‘Mentally Ill

The government of Peru has issued a decree classifying transsexualism, transvestism, and other gender identities as a “mental illness.”

The decree, signed on Friday, May 10, by Peruvian President Dina Boluarte, the minister of health, and the minister of the economy, states that people diagnosed with “transsexualism, dual-role transvestism, gender identity disorder in childhood, other gender identity disorders, gender identity disorder (unspecified), fetish transvestism and egodystonic sexual orientation” would be covered for their “mental health problem” under the country’s Essential Health Insurance Plan.

“In the field of mental health, the Essential Health Insurance Plan (PEAS) considers the mental health problems contemplated in the Chapter on Mental and Behavioral Disorders of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) of the World Health Organization, in force at the time of health care, as insurable conditions that must be financed for all insured persons, including the provision of medical supplies,” the decree said on the president’s website.

Human Rights Watch disagreed with the decree’s categorization by calling them “obsolete classifications.”

“It employs obsolete classifications related to gender identity and sexual orientation that the World Health Organization (WHO) replaced in the most recent International Classification of Diseases, published in 2019. The decree also further calcifies prejudices against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Peru which have led to violence and discrimination against this population,” researcher Cristian Gonzalez Cabrera wrote in his analysis of the decree.

Peruvian transgender activists denounced the decision.

“100 years after the decriminalization of homosexuality, the @Minsa_Peru has no better idea than to include trans people in the category of mental illnesses. We demand and we will not rest until its repeal,” Jheinser Pacaya, director of Outfest Peru, said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

A researcher for Lima’s Scientific University of the South suggested that this move could lead to “conversion therapy.”

“You can’t ignore the context that this is happening in a super-conservative society, where the LGBT community has no rights and where labeling them as mentally ill opens the door to conversion therapy,” researcher Percy Mayta-Tristan reportedly said.

Chaya Raichik, owner of the social media account Libs of TikTok, responded with a reminder that TikTok transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney went to Peru last year to “feel safe” from the onslaught of online harassment.

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“Remember when Dylan Mulvaney fled the US to Peru to ‘feel safe’? Well now Peru just passed a bill classifying trans people as ‘mentally ill.’ Dylan Mulvaney would be officially considered mentally ill in Peru. What do you think of this new policy?” she asked her social media followers.

The Washington Examiner reached out to Mulvaney for comment.