In Peru, the health ministry released a decree that classified in the country’s Essential Health Insurance Plan all people identifying as transgender or non-binary as “mentally ill”, and so in need of more mental health services.
As first reported by The Telegraph, Peruvian president Dina Boluarte signed the decree that states that “transsexualism, dual-role transvestism, gender identity disorder in childhood, other gender identity disorders and fetishistic transvestism” are all to be classified as mental illnesses.
The minister of health and the minister of the economy also signed the decree, with a Ministry of Health official was quoted as saying that the policy change intends to facilitate coverage for “transsexual people and people with gender identity disorders,” particularly in private clinics.
The decree actually makes use of obsolete classifications related to gender identity and sexual orientation, both already replaced by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2019, when it published the latest International Classification of Diseases.
