Ask the APA to Remove “Transvestic Disorder” Diagnosis from the DSM-5

Filed by: Kelley Winters
March 16, 2010 1:00 PM

The International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE) has posted an
online petition calling for removal of the Transvestic Disorder diagnosis (302.3) from the pending Fifth Edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). http://dsm.ifge.org/petition/

Please help put an end to this defamatory and hurtful psychiatric label by adding your name and spreading the word to your organizations, friends and contacts.

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) released draft diagnostic
criteria for the DSM-5 last month, and a period of public review and
comment ends April 20th. Their proposal includes the diagnostic
category Transvestic Disorder, previously called Transvestic
Fetishism, which classifies crossdressing by birth-assigned males as
mental illness.

This diagnosis perpetuates false stereotypes of sexual deviance that
are used to deny human dignity and civil justice to gender variant and
transgender people. It punishes feminine gender expression that does
not conform to masculine conventions. It pathologizes harmless
consensual sexual expression and sexualizes gender expression that is
not necessarily sexually motivated.

The Transvestic Disorder category is not limited to crossdressers or
male-identified people. It also targets transsexual women with a
specifier of “autogynephilia,” a deeply offensive label to many
transwomen, implying that all transsexual women transition for sexual
reasons rather than harmony with gender identity.

Please ask the the American Psychiatric Association DSM-5 Task Force,
Board of Trustees and elected leadership to reject the proposed
Transvestic Disorder category and remove this gender nonconformity
diagnosis from the DSM-5.