Transgender symbol
The Associated Press reported today that the term “gender identity disorder” will be removed from the DSM-5, or the newest version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, which is expected to be released in 2013. The DSM is the guide all doctors, psychologists, and psychiatrists use when diagnosing mental disorders.
The term “gender identity disorder” is included in the current edition of the DSM, and it refers to children or adults who believe that they were born as the wrong gender.
LGBT activists say the condition is not a disorder, and calling it one is offensive to those who are transgendered. “Gender identity disorder” would be replaced with “gender dysphoria,” which is defined as “emotional distress over one’s gender.”
The AP reports that supporters of this new term consider this change equivalent to when the DSM removed the word “homosexuality” as a mental disorder decades ago.
What do you think? Should there be a term change? Does the wording matter? Should it even be in the DSM?
Photo (cc) by ParaDox and republished under a Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved.
Katherine Landergan 
