Major Developments

ICD-11 has now been ratified by the World Health Organization member states. Since 2013, WPATH has been closely involved with the WHO efforts to move away from the mental health classification and the corresponding nomenclature change. We hope that these changes will have a positive effect on access to care for trans people, but providers and patients in the US should not hold their breath in anticipation. If history is a guide, it will take another decade or so for the US to adopt the changes introduced in ICD-11. We hope that other countries will adopt these changes more quickly and lead the way to more equitable and constructive care delivery for those whose Gender Incongruence requires medical treatment and to a reduction in the damage caused by mental health diagnoses that stigmatize gender.

In other news, we see the debates about the 8th Amendment rights of prisoners to gender-affirming care, two journalistic takes on the Trump administration's efforts to remove trans health and women's reproductive health from anti-discrimination protection under the Affordable Care Act, a move which the WPATH Board has protested in conjunction with 30 other medical groups. We also include a story pitting trans health against Catholic doctrine in the context of a public institution, the University of California San Francisco, another instance where the WPATH Board weighed in by urging the UC Regents not to lose sight of its public charge to protect trans health and the providers who serve trans patients. And finally, two stories about controversies in which judgments about trans people and their health care needs leads to consequential mistakes and adversarial tensions representative of issues WPATH members must still confront to create safe environments for trans clients or patients. Major developments are unfolding everywhere!