DSM section 302.85

Published 05/29/2008

by Zak Szymanski

http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=3021

As the American Psychiatric Association begins to consider revisions for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V), LGBT advocates say that community members need to have a series of discussions to determine how to unite around the future of Gender Identity Disorder.

GID – recorded as 302.85 according to the DSM-4, and 302.6 as it relates to children – is defined as strong and persistent cross-gender identification (not merely a desire for any perceived cultural advantages of being the other sex). The disorder requires that some degree of suffering be present, and it is not meant to describe gender nonconformity, though therapists and advocates say that the diagnosis can be misused.