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28 SEP 2011
European Parliament joins with UN in calling for LGBT Rights
Earlier today the European Parliament joined the United Nations' call for safeguarding the LGBT human rights, mandating EU Member States to step up their work for the human rights of LGBT people worldwide.
In a groundbreaking statement, the resolution called on the Commission and the World Health Organization to withdraw gender identity disorders from the list of mental and behavioural disorders, and ensure a non-pathologising reclassification. It also called in particular for the depsychiatrisation of the transsexual, transgender, journey, for free choice of care providers, for changing identity to be simplified, and for costs to be met by social security schemes. The resolution calls on all EU Member States to systematically promote the protection and respect of human rights in relation to gender identity.
The resolution comes days after the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) made a clear statement that gender nonconformity is not pathological. The European Parliament's unequivocal statement may cause difficulties for Ireland's proposed legislation for gender recognition, which relies primarily on a psychiatric framework of transgender experience.
Ireland's human rights record comes under the spotlight in seven days, when it receives its first Universal Periodic Review at the UN in Geneva.
You can read the resolution below (pdf) and further commentary from the European Parliament's Intergroup on LGBT Rights: http://www.lgbt-ep.eu/press-releases/ep-welcomes-recent-un-developments-sexual-orientation-gender-identity/
From the Resolution:
Point 13.
Roundly condemns the fact that homosexuality, bisexuality and transsexuality are still regarded as mental illnesses by some countries, including within the EU, and calls on states to combat this; calls in particular for the depsychiatrisation of the transsexual, transgender, journey, for free choice of care providers, for changing identity to be simplified, and for costs to be met by social security schemes;
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