Below is the Society of Transsexual Women of the Philippines' statement in 2010 in support of the STP Campaign. It is STRAP's stand regarding pathologization of transpeople.
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Recognizing that transsexualism is classified as a
mental disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV
(DSM IV) of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and in the International
Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) of the World Health Organization (WHO);
Considering that gender is a binary classification system
imposed on human beings since their birth;
Bearing in mind that the gender identities and expressions
that strictly fit into the traditional norms of being either male or female are
the only socially allowed gender identities and expressions;
Highlighting that this gender binary classification system has led
to the discrimination, violence, and marginalization against human beings who
do not conform to its standards;
Upholding the definition of gender identity in the
Yogyakarta Principles, as each person's deeply felt internal and individual
experience of gender, which may or may not correspond with the sex assigned at
birth, including the personal sense of the body (which may involve, if freely
chosen, modification of bodily appearance or function by medical, surgical or
other means) and other expressions of gender, including dress, speech and
mannerisms;
Affirming the Yogyakarta Principles on the application of
international human rights law in relation to sexual orientation and gender
identity, especially Principle 1 – The Right to the Universal Enjoyment of
Human Rights, which calls on states to undertake programmes of education and
awareness to promote and enhance the full enjoyment of all human rights by all
persons, irrespective of sexual orientation and gender identity'; and Principle
2 – The Rights to Equality and Non Discrimination, which calls on States to
'take all appropriate action, including programmes of education and training,
with a view to achieving the elimination of prejudicial or discriminatory
attitudes or behaviours which are related to the idea of the inferiority or the
superiority of any sexual orientation or gender identity or gender expression';
Endorsing the 26th of May 2010 statement of the Board of Directors
of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) that calls
for the de-psychopathologisation of gender variance worldwide and which affirms
that the expression of gender characteristics, including identities, that are
not stereotypically associated with one's assigned sex at birth is a common and
culturally-diverse human phenomenon which should not be judged as inherently
pathological or negative;
Recalling the societal vision of our organization of a nurturing
society that affirms, respects, and upholds the dignity, the right to
self-determination and good quality of life of all;
The Society of Transsexual Women of the Philippines (STRAP), in adopting this
declaration, hereby:
Rejects the pathologization of gender identities and
expressions and supports the call to Stop Trans Pathologization by the year
2012
Affirms that the development of gender identity and
expression is part of the right to the free development of personality;
Affirms that gender identity and expression is a matter of
self-determination and as sacred as the right to life itself;
Affirms that the role of the psychiatric and medical
communities over the lives of transgender people is not to pathologize and stigmatize
them but to provide patient-centered care that upholds that highest possible
standards of health; and
Calls for rights-based legislation in the Philippines that
would protect transgender people from discrimination and allow them to change
their legal sex into their gender identity.
