Denmark looks set to become the first country to stop classifying transgender individuals as mentally ill.

Members of Socialdemokraterne have called for health minister Sophie Løhde to remove transgenderism from WHO’s list of mental illnesses. Alternativet and Enhedslisten made the proposal back in late February, and it now has a parliamentary majority backing it, reports DR.

Huge progress
Transgender individuals are those whose gender identity does not conform to the sex they are assigned at birth, and the condition is still classified as a mental illness by the World Health Organization.

“We have long worked to ensure that transgender individuals in Denmark have equal rights. Our patience has run out in relation to the ongoing work [to declassify it as an illness] at the UN,” said Flemming Møller Mortensen from Socialdemokraterne.

Løhde has since promised to further the agenda at the UN.

“I will work to get it changed at the UN in the autumn,” she said.

However, she is adamant Denmark will make the necessary changes whether or not the UN does.

“If that fails, then I will realise that Denmark is alone on this and work [to declassify transgenderism as a mental illness] by other means in the country by 1 January 2017.”