LGBTQIA + health in Chile: from institutional depathologization to reparative and affirmative care

Abstract

The historical medicalization of sex-gender diversities has led to the pathologizing of LGBTQIA+ identities over the years. In order to justify their pathologization, the so-called “conversion therapies’’ are validated, a practice that is currently legally prohibited but is maintained informally in some parts of the world. Even to date, the struggle for validation and for living in an affirmative environment free of violence persists, but it must not be ignored that progress on this issue has been progressive. Proof of this is the process of depathologization of sex-generic diversities in the International Classification of Diseases and other Health Problems (ICD). From there, the construction of global and national health management has been persistently aimed at understanding the social determinants and the specific needs of each community. Although progress has been clear, these issues are not yet integrated into health schools in Chile, and are maintained rather, from activist spaces and by personal interest of professionals sensitized in the matter.