New Zealand's queer communities are being urged to support the international day of action for the Stop Trans Pathologisation campaign (STP2011) today. Around the world trans people will be protesting against medical diagnoses that define gender diversity as a disorder. In New Zealand, Auckland-based trans organisation GenderBridge is launching an online Facebook campaign. "Trans people are part of the rich diversity of humanity. Being trans is not an illness," says Genderbridge Chair Jaimie Veale. "In Aotearoa and across the Pacific there is a proud history of gender diversity. Whakawahine, tangata ira tane, fa'afafine, leiti and trans people should be treated with dignity and respect - not labelled as having a ‘gender identity disorder'." Genderbridge is expressing hope all members of the glbti community will support STP2011, knowing how important it was for them to fight to have homosexuality removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental disorders in 1973 and from the International Classification of Diseases in 1990. It says more than 20 years later, trans people around the world are lobbying the World Health Organisation to remove all references in the ICD that define trans people or gender diversity as 'disorders'. "Trans people who physically transition require certain health services. It is time to stop labelling gender diversity as an illness, and start treating trans people as equal human beings, with some specific health needs." Jacqui Stanford - 22nd October 2011