APA Removes Transgenderism as 'Mental Illness'

Finally.  2012 marks the year when the APA (the American Psychiatric Association) has officially replaced the term "Gender Identity Disorder" with "Gender Dysphoria."  This means transgender is no longer categorized as a mental illness.

The U.S. now joins Canada, Great Britain, the Netherlands, France, the Scandinavian countries, and several others that have already changed their official policies.

The change will have an impact in legal cases and legislation, and is being hailed as a huge step forward for trans rights not just in the states, but potentially in other countries as well.  For better or worse it cannot be denied that America is influential; this includes its medical associations, whose policies do have an influence on the policies of medical associations in other (less progressive) countries.

After ten years, the sky still hasn't fallen

An OpEd by Boris O. Dittrich, appearing in the Los Angeles Times, April 17, 2011:

After the Netherlands acted, civilization as we know it didn't end.

Ten years ago when the Netherlands became the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage, most Dutch people were in favor of the law, but a vocal minority insisted that same-sex marriage would mean the end of Western civilization.  It took a political slugfest to get the law passed.

I was a member of parliament at the time and the initial sponsor of the same-sex legislation.  The Netherlands had introduced gay civil unions in 1998; I regarded them as a step forward but still insufficient.  Why should heterosexuals be able to fence off a part of civil law — marriage — and defend it as exclusively theirs?  This "separate but equal" status reminded me of apartheid in South Africa and Jim Crow in the United States.  When two people decide to share their responsibilities and commit themselves to each other by entering civil marriage, their sexual orientation shouldn't matter to the government.