Is being transgender a mental illness? WHO classification system suggests it is

It is, perhaps, a peculiar fact involving an obscure medical text, but it is one that is now taking on outsized importance: The World Health Organization, in a compendium of conditions and diseases, lists being transgender under the umbrella of mental illness.

The WHO publishes a standardized coding system used around the globe to classify medical conditions, for research purposes and health-care billing. In the document, being transgender is currently included in a section with kleptomania (the overwhelming impulse to steal), trichotillomania (the compulsion to pull out one’s own hair), and pedophilia (a preference for having sex with children).