Denmark plans to delist transgender identity as mental issue

Denmark is preparing to change the law so that being transgender will no longer be considered a mental disorder.

Flemming Moeller Mortensen, deputy chairman of Parliament's Health Committee, says all nine parties in the assembly have agreed to change the law by Jan. 1 next year.

Tuesday's agreement clears the way for the government to submit a formal proposal to change the Health Ministry's guidelines.

Moeller Mortensen said Denmark has lost patience with the World Health Organization, which has come under pressure to stop classifying transgender identity as mental disorder in its clinical guidelines.

He said Denmark will go it alone because it "wants to be front-runner like when we became the first country in the world to recognize same-sex partnership" in 1989.