Russia is facing a ‘transgender epidemic’ fueled by propaganda and foreign funding, Olga Bukhanovskaya has said
A top Russian psychiatrist has classified homosexuality and transgender identity as mental illnesses during a major medical congress in Russia.
Speaking at the 18th Congress of Psychiatrists of Russia last week, Olga Bukhanovskaya, chief physician of the Phoenix Medical and Rehabilitation Scientific Center in Rostov-on-Don, introduced the concept of a “transgender spectrum disorder.”
“If people now use the nice-sounding phrase ‘autism spectrum disorder’ then we can say ‘transgender spectrum disorder’ and all of these mental illnesses fall under it,” Bukhanovskaya said.
The proposed category includes five distinct conditions: “homosexuality,”“fetishistic transvestism,” a term describing cross-dressing linked to sexual arousal, “personality disorders,”“schizotypal disorder,” and “schizophrenia with periodic effeminacy,” which refers to intermittent feminine behavior or traits in men.
Bukhanovskaya, daughter of the late psychiatrist Aleksander Bukhanovsky, who created the psychological profile of the infamous Ukrainian serial killer Andrey Chikatilo, also described Russia as facing a “transgender epidemic” fueled by propaganda and foreign funding.
She accused what she called a “fifth column of medicine” of promoting transgender rights, saying “trans-LGBT-friendly doctors,” psychologists and lecturers were indoctrinating patients and the wider medical community.
The World Health Organization removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders in 1990. Under the WHO’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), the global diagnostic manual used by doctors and health systems worldwide, transsexualism was also removed from the category of mental illnesses when updated standards took effect in 2022.
Moscow suspended its planned transition to ICD-11 in 2024, saying some provisions conflicted with the country’s traditional values.
In 2023, after Russia adopted a law banning “medical interventions aimed at sex change,” the Russian Society of Psychiatrists drafted clinical guidelines on “gender identity disorders.” The document acknowledged that transgender people could not be “cured” and recommended psychotherapy support instead.
In recent years, Russia has taken steps to promote traditional values and banned “LGBT propaganda,” designating the international movement as “extremist.” Russian officials, including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, have argued that Western-promoted LGBTQ agendas seek to “erode, erase, and subjugate” the values and identities of other countries.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stated that non-traditional relationships between adults remain a private matter, though he has stressed that their promotion, especially among minors, is prohibited.
