The health ministry said the decree was the only way Peru’s public health services could “guarantee full coverage of medical attention for mental health”.

In one recent move, lawmakers banned references to gender equality from school textbooks. That has had a devastating effect on classes intended to prevent domestic assault and femicides.

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.

José Pedro Castillo Terrones served as the President of Peru from 28 July 2021 to 7 December 2022.

Mr Castillo’s first prime minister, Guido Bellido, was known, among other things, for praising Fidel Castro for refusing to allow gay people – whom he described using a derogatory term – to participate in the Cuban revolution

https://nypost.com/2024/05/15/world-news/peru-classifies-trans-intersex-people-as-mentally-ill/