The Peruvian government has officially classified transgender, nonbinary, and intersex individuals as “mentally ill.”
This decision, which has sparked controversy, was made in order to enable the country’s public health services to provide comprehensive mental health care for the transgender community, according to a new report by the Telegraph. However, LGBTQ+ activist groups in Peru strongly criticized the decision, viewing it as a significant setback in the ongoing struggle for their rights and safety.
“100 years after the decriminalization of homosexuality, the @Minsa_Peru has nothing better to do than to include trans people in the category of mental illnesses,” Jheinser Pacaya, director of OutfestPeru, shared on X. “We demand and we will not rest until its repeal,” they added. Percy Mayta-Tristán, a medical researcher at Lima’s Scientific University of the South, expressed to the Telegraph that the decision highlighted a lack of understanding regarding the intricacies of LGBTQ+ concerns.
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“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,” he explained.
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