Tory MEPs have voted against the withdrawal of gender identity from the the International Classification of Diseases' list of mental and behavioural disorders.
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Tory MEPs have voted against the withdrawal of gender identity from the the International Classification of Diseases’ list of mental and behavioural disorders.
Daniel Hannan and Nirj Deva voted alongside the likes of the BNP’s Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons in opposing Labour MEP Richard Howitt’s amendment to human rights legislation, with other Tories abstaining.
The amendment, which was passed by 353 votes to 268 with 52 abstentions:
• Commends the Council, the EEAS, the VP/HR, the Commission and the Member States on their engagement in favour of LGBT people’s human rights in bilateral relations with third countries, in multilateral forums, and through the EIDHR;
• Welcomes the reintroduction by the UN General Assembly of sexual orientation as grounds for protection from extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary execution, and welcomes the EU’s efforts to this end;
• Calls on the Commission to advocate the withdrawal of gender identity from the list of mental and behavioural disorders in the negotiations on the 11th version of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) and to seek a non-pathologising reclassification;
• Reasserts that the principle of non-discrimination, also embracing grounds of sex and sexual orientation, must not be compromised in the ACP-EU partnership;
• Reiterates its request that the Commission produce a comprehensive roadmap against homophobia, transphobia and discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity, also addressing human rights violations on these grounds in the world;
• Calls on the Member States to grant asylum to people fleeing persecution in countries where LGBT people are criminalised, taking into consideration applicants’ well founded fears of persecution, and relying on their self-identification as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
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• Cameron must speak out against Canada’s anti-gay marriage ruling 13 Jan 2012
• Equal love: Time for the UK Parliament to recognise gay marriage 19 Dec 2011
• Time for the Commonwealth to stop the criminalisation of sexuality 28 Oct 2011
• Tory MEP’s false claims on gay rights 7 Oct 2009
Following the vote, Howitt attacked Tory views on LGBT issues as “neanderthal”, “whatever [David] Cameron claims”, with fellow Labour MEP Michael Cashman, co-chair of the European Parliament’s LGBT Inter-group, adding:
“These Tories should explain why they refused to support an engagement in favour of LGBT people’s human rights when the EU negotiates with countries outside the EU and in multilateral forums. It’s important we use our trading power to encourage reform in countries where LGBT people are persecuted.
“We called for the reintroduction by the UN General Assembly of sexual orientation as grounds for protection from extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary execution also embracing grounds of sex and sexual orientation – this is human decency and every British MEP should fully support it.
“So why did the Tories abstain?”
44 Responses to “Tory MEPs vote for gender identity to be on list of mental and behavioural disorders”
Anonymous
So if its not a ‘disorder’, we don’t have to pay to reassign people’s gender.
Or do you want it both ways?
Duncan Stott
It’s not a ‘mental and behavioural disorder’. Broadly speaking, reassignment surgery is to correct their physical sex to match their (healthy) mental gender.
But still, how nice of you to try and spin an article to make a transphobic remark.
Brian Hubbledecker
I really can’t understand some of my brothers and sisters obsession with tiny minority politics. If people would drop ‘isms’ and concentrate purely on the the rights of an individual rather than seeing colour, sex, sexual preference or whatever as something that needs ‘special’ treatment. As long as we see people’s colour, sex, sexual preference we are not treating them equally nor as individuals and we are in danger of being seen as condescending and desperately out of touch. These people want to be treated like everyone else as an individual not as some charity case.
Ruth
Or alternatively…
This matters because trans people want non-pathologising access to medical treatment? Forgive us for engaging in “tiny minority politics”, but as a tiny minority its the own way we get access to services.
Similarly, we need to remain aware of “race” because racism is still a problem, we need to remain aware of “sex” because sexism is still a problem, we need to remain aware of sexual orientation because homophobia is still a problem, we need to remain aware of disability because ablism is still a problem and impairments don’t magically go away if you just happen to be a good liberal.
I’m a trans person and yes, I wanted to be treated “the same as everyone else” – but I’d also like to be treated decently, and since I’m treated badly because I’m trans it’s pretty darn sensible for me to engage with trans politics.
Brian Hubbledecker
Hey calm down … I’m on your side. In order to get equality which is all we are after right? You can go down one of two routes one is fighting against everything and getting your point thrust upon others which creates in itself a ‘them and us’ mindset. The other way is to treat everyone as an individual with no more and no less rights than anyone else so there is is no such thing a race, sex or orientation ‘card’ – for ‘them or ‘us’ to play – its tough to get your mind round but it is the paradigm shift that politics needs to deal with racism, sexism and trans politics. By treating everyone as an individual you are saying everyone is the same – because everyone SHOULD be the same in the eyes of the law, an employer, the government etc – by saying everyone is the same you are ridding the entire system of divisive language which, in my view, has kept alive the ‘us’ versus ‘them’ and therefore racism and sexism long after it should have been dead. Let’s face cold hard facts here – we are not winning the war here and there are vested interests in keeping a stalemate.
Now this doesn’t mean that abuse or discrimination goes unpunished, far from it, but it is a crime by one individual against another fundamentally and the judge will decide whether or not there were aggravating circumstances and sentence/fine accordingly. It’s all we need, equal treatment as INDIVIDUALS.