2nd European Transgender Council transforms into 1st global conference of transgender activists

 

*based on press release

 

 

 

 

More than 200 transgender activists from 5 continents came together on 2-4 May for the 2nd European Transgender Council in Berlin.

Participants came from 83 groups and 38 countries, among them Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkey,  Russia, Ukraine, Belarus,  USA, Peru, Japan, Namibia, Kyrgyzstan, Israel, Serbia, Iceland, Romania, Croatia.

Human rights issues, anti-discrimination legislation and an exchange of experiences on an international level were the central concerns of the Council.

The first comprehensive study (2007) of the legal rights situation and experience of health care of transgender people in Europe shows that transgender people continue to face massive violations of their human rights in most European states.

Despite much scientific controversy, forms of transgender continue to be listed in the DSM IV of the American Psychological Association (APA), just as homosexuality once was, and in the ICD-10 of the World Health Organization (WHO) as psychological disorders. DSM and ICD are guideline manuals used in healthcare to standardise the definitions of what constitutes mental illness. Transgender Europe (TGEU) emphatically refuses this pathologisation and will assist the next reformulation of the DSM in a critical manner, when this is carried out in 2011.

At the plenary meeting of Transgender Europe (TGEU), a new Executive Board and a new Steering Committee were elected, with representatives from Denmark, Germany, England, Ireland and Italy. The new President of the Organisation is Stephen Whittle, PhD, Professor of Equalities Law, Manchester Metropolitan University, President of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH, USA) and Vicepresident of Press for Change (PfC, UK).