The Principle 17 website has been completely renewed in recent weeks. This involves a total renovation: a fresh design, a clear layout and tangible information. Also, the new website is bilingual again. We invite you to visit www.principle17.org!

In recent weeks, Principle 17 has been working hard on the new website. The biggest job of course happened behind the scenes, but certain things could only be tested live. The new site is now really ready.

The desire to renew the website had existed for some time, because the old website started to show disturbing defects. But as is often the case, there was a lack of humanpower to tackle this ‘project’. Fortunately, there was space this spring.

For Principle 17, the renewal was also a walk through old projects. Now that we’ve looked at everything again, it’s striking how much we’ve done since we started in 2015! And have also achieved.

Health care vision

In 2022 and 2023, we worked on a different vision on trans health care, as an alternative to the common view in the Dutch medical world. Our health care vision is based on self-determination and other human rights. With these principles you automatically get a vision of health care that is depathologising: being trans is not a psychiatric disorder nor a medical condition. Being trans simply is human diversity that may require medical intervention. (Just like being pregnant: that is not a medical condition either, but you will receive medical help if necessary!) Our vision is about adults and young people.

Principle 17 therefore rejects the psychiatric (!) diagnosis of ‘gender dysphoria’ from the DSM-5-TR, which Dutch gender teams still use. The ICD-11 of the World Health Organization is much better in that respect. That mentions the diagnosis of ‘gender incongruence’ for adults and young people. The ICD is not yet suitable for younger children: that diagnosis should be dropped. After all, before puberty is no need for medical intervention (for example with puberty blockers).

Principle 17

Principle 17 is committed to good, tailor-made transgender health care in the Netherlands. Health care if you need it, when you need it, as you need it. We named ourselves after Yogyakarta Principle 17. The Yogyakarta Principles are international human rights, taken from existing treaties (such as the Universal Convention on Human Rights) and elaborated for specific matters surrounding gender identity, sex diversity and sexual orientation. Principle 17 sets out the right to the highest attainable standard of health care.