De-path. Depatologizzazione e ricerca-azione per una riforma della L.164/1982

In 2019 the WHO renamed gender incongruence the diagnosis previouslycalledgenderdysphoriaandremoveditfromtheICD’sMentalHealthChapter.Thiswas considered the founding act of trans depsychiatrization, which laid the foundationsfor a radical reform of the services addressed to trans and non-binary people, both on alegalandsocial-healthlevel.Theproceduresforlegalrecognitionofgenderaffirmationare still slow and cumbersome, when not openly abusive, in diverse National States.In Italy they are ruled by L. 164/1982, which resulted from the battles of the transmovement and was intended to rectify the legal position of those who, at that time, alreadyunderwentsurgeryabroad.AlthoughtheSupremeCourtandtheCourtofAppealhaveformally recognized the right to gender identity as a constitutional right, access tO genderaffirmation procedures is still bound to a psychological/psychiatric diagnosis and to a true "compulsory health treatment". Even in terms of medical practice, gate-keeping modelsinhibit and jeopardize the person's self-determination. By reporting the first findings ofa research-action carried out in Bologna, and by analyzing legal and policy documentsdeveloped in recent years by the trans movement, in this paper I will focus on theelaboration of common meaning from which the trans movement is starting to imaginethe implementation of alternative legal and health paths. Why should anthropology becalled into question in this process? What role for the anthropologist in the construction of reform paths for current regulations? To these question I will offer a first answer by providing further problematization of the issues at stake.