International Day of Action for Trans Depathologisation 2025

On this International Day of Action for Trans Depathologisation, we join global movements demanding the full withdrawal of all classifications that treat trans and gender diverse identities as mental disorders. Since 2007, this day has marked a global movement led by the Stop Trans Pathologization (STP) campaign “a call for justice, dignity, and autonomy”. In 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) removed ‘transsexualism’ from the chapter on mental and behavioral disorders in 2019 through the ICD-11 and included ‘gender incongruence’ under the chapter on conditions relating to sexual health. Many countries, including those across East Africa, have yet to align their healthcare and legal systems with this progress. Across the world, trans and gender diverse people continue to face stigma, medical violence, and denial of care. Access to trans-specific healthcare is unaffordable to many trans people, often resulting in a complete lack of access or in some situations, resorting to DIY options. Legal gender recognition remains absent or heavily restricted, with bureaucracies still demanding invasive medical procedures or proof of ‘transition.’ We demand a healthcare system rooted in consent, not control. We affirm that trans identities are not to be treated as an illness. We assert that our bodies are not up for diagnosis. Our Demands We call on East African governments, regional human rights institutions, and public health authorities to:

1. Reform national health policies to align with the WHO’s ICD-11 and adopt an informed consent model for trans-specific healthcare, free from psychiatric gatekeeping.
2. Guarantee universal access to trans-specific healthcare as part of public health systems, including hormones, surgeries, and psychosocial support.
3. Enact legal gender recognition is based solely on self-determination, without medical, surgical, or psychological requirements.
4. Depathologize gender diversity in childhood, ensuring that trans and gender diverse children have access to affirming support, education, and care.
5. Invest in education and training for healthcare professionals, social workers, and educators to eliminate stigma and ensure affirming care.
6. Protect trans and gender diverse people from conversion practices, state violence, and discrimination in healthcare, employment, and education.
7. Include trans and intersex people in all decision-making spaces related to health, law, and human rights.

Our Call to Action We call upon civil society, donors, and human rights bodies to recognize that trans depathologisation is a human rights imperative. We urge feminist, queer, and human rights movements to stand with trans and intersex people in demanding health justice, legal recognition, and an end to medicalized oppression. We call on the public to unlearn the myths that associate being trans with illness, sin, or anything foreign, and instead affirm that trans and gender diverse people have always existed, everywhere, in every community. Our Vision A region where trans, intersex, and gender diverse people live freely, access quality healthcare without fear, and are recognized for who they are, not as patients, but as people. Depathologize trans lives. Decolonize gender. Defend self-determination.