Rejection to a trans pathologization

Dear members of ILGA activists and human rights defenders

Let me invite you to participate in the demonstration against the trans pathologizing to be held on October 17th, 2009, and thus join the concert of cities that have already committed to this action by the struggle for the right to trans identity. Let’s eradicate discrimination and social exclusion of trans people fostered by the stigmatization of trans identity as an identity disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Join us in the fight for cultural freedom expressed in the respect of the construction of trans identity alternatives that the binary gender framework is unable to include.

Several cities over the world have confirmed their participation: Barcelona, Madrid, Bilbao, Donostia, Zaragoza, Granada and La Coruña (Spain), Torino (Italy), and Lisboa (Portugal); Paris, Lille and Marseille (France); and Brussels (Belgium), Quito (Ecuador), Montreal (Quebec) and Campinas (Brazil). While more cities are being added to the action, we hope that many others do so during the following weeks.

The protest march planned for October has its origins in the initiative of the Manis, trans visibility in Paris (called Existrans), demonstrating that it came from about ten years ago. That act joined some groups in Spain with the particularity of incorporating the fight against trans gender identity disorder. The first events occurred in Madrid, Barcelona and Paris, in 2007, but by 2008 there were eleven cities mobilized for October 17th against the trans pathologizing.

The new version of DSM-V will appear in 2012, for which the APA (American Psychiatric Association) released a survey to collect relevant information. For that reason, it is necessary to deepen our actions and disseminate our points of view on a key for us and by us. We must concentrate efforts on a coordinated expression with as many cities as possible for the non-pathologizing of trans identities.

The international campaign until 2012 called "Stop the Trans pathologization-2012" aims to bring together all the actions against gender identity disorder.

The organization of the event includes:

 That all cities to join the project must confirm before September the first, to add to the manifestos and posters to be printed in most cities during the month of September.
 That the motto can vary between cities, but we propose that all carry the sub-theme "Stop Trans Pathologization-2012”, to form part of a project.
 We can include the logo of the campaign in spreading graphically and through the Internet, which will ship soon.
 That the contact person in each city sends us pictures / photos, posting action to carry out a centralized distribution and to highlight the global campaign with more emphasis on the media.

 That each city to develop its own manifesto should consider the following five points in common:

We demand:
o The Withdrawal of GID (Gender Identity Disorder) from the international diagnostic manuals (forthcoming versions DSM-V and ICD-11).
o The removal of the mention of sex in official documents.
o The abolition of the binary standard treatments on intersex people.
o The free access to hormone treatments and surgeries (without psychiatric care).
o The fight against transphobia, leading educational training and social integration and employment of trans people.

Send a message shortly with the following information:

Group name, group or organization
Logo
Country
City
Message: We support the campaign "Stop the Trans pathologization - 2012

Send them to the e-mail:

stp2012@gmail.com
belissa@ilga.org

Subject: Accession SPT 2012

Sincerely:

Belissa Andía Perez
ILGA-Trans Secretariat
International Lesbian
Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex