LGBTQ groups demonstrated outside Peru’s health ministry on Friday after the government declared transsexualism a mental condition.
Transgender people are those who reject the gender they were assigned at birth. Some opt for a surgical or medical procedure.
The government added treatments for transgender individuals to its list of medical conditions that are covered by insurance on May 10.
This change will affect those who receive benefits for mental health therapy starting in 2021.
In the decree, the Ministry of Health describes the condition as a “mental disorder” – an outdated term that the World Health Organization has long since officially abandoned.
More than 200 activists gathered outside the Ministry of Health on Friday – the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia – to demand the decree be revoked.
They demanded the repeal of what they called the transphobic and violent decree that goes against their trans identity in Peru.
The government has said it would not cancel the decree. Health Ministry official Carlos Alvadrado said it would “take away the right to care”.
