The move has triggered a backlash in the country.
The Peruvian government has officially classified transgender, nonbinary and intersex people as “mentally ill.”
According to The Telegraph, the country’s health ministry said the decree was the only way Peru’s public health services could “guarantee full coverage of medical attention for mental health”.
The move has triggered a backlash in the country.
Lawmakers had earlier banned references to gender equality from school textbooks. That has had a devastating effect on classes intended to prevent domestic assault and femicides.
César Vásquez, the health minister, has failed to comment on the row.
However, he has defended President Dina Boluarte for the declaration. The president is under investigation for her unexplained acquisition of expensive jewellery, including a diamond-encrusted Cartier bracelet valued at £40,000.
Last week, her brother Nicanor Boluarte was arrested for selling senior jobs in the government. The president responded by dismantling an elite police anti-corruption unit and unsuccessfully attempting to block the publication of official statistics showing a rise in poverty.
Percy Mayta-Tristán, a medical researcher at Lima’s Scientific University of the South, said that the decree may have been well-intentioned but it revealed a lack of awareness of complex LGBT issues.
“You can’t ignore the context that this is happening in a super-conservative society, where the LGBT community has no rights and where labelling them as mentally ill opens the door to conversion therapy,” he said.