[Note: "Trans" is used here as short form to describe a range of communities of identities and conditions that have in common discord with the sex or gender assumed at birth, and are labeled mentally disordered for that reason alone, (though it is actually a physiological, medical and physical condition) , such as Transsexual, Transgender, Gender Variant and some Intersex people.]
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The petition was initiated by Dr. Kimberly Hyatt-Wallace, a Transwoman herself and Consulting Psychologist, states:

"I was outraged to see that the worst enemies of the trans community had been selected to oversee and guide the standards of diagnostic criteria for the DSM-V. To me it was like putting the KKK in charge of Affirmative Action, a denial of essential human rights and a gross betrayal of medical ethics, starting with 'do no harm'"

The APA currently lists "Gender Identity Disorder" immediately next to "pedophilia" in the aforementioned manual of mental disorders. This has great similarities to the way the APA classified homosexuality as a mental disorder as well, until homosexual people organized to have it removed in 1973.

The Trans communities are alarmed that such transphobic therapists are influencing the fate of thousands of human beings, most of who do not support these therapists, or their beliefs. But what has rallied the Trans community even more so, are the lack of feedback as to why the APA has appointed these obviously unacceptable individuals to the DSM-V Review Board, and that they do not accept that the Trans community has a right to have a say in health care and human rights. The APA is apparently doing everything possible, including trying to have this petition process canceled, to stop the people who they’ve classified as disordered. Yet these same people are considered by many other learned bodies to have natural and harmless variations of gender, which are not disordered at all.

The World Gender Coalition (WGC) which was created in the face of this significant outrage has promoted this petition, and encourages the Trans communities and their allies to take action. The WGC is a determined coalition of Trans and Non Trans scientists, professionals, activists, allies and organizations organized to end stigmatization and promote human rights in health care and society.

The American Psychological Association was attached to the petition because many of the same individuals were earlier appointed to their 'Task Force on Gender Identity, Gender Variance, and Intersex Conditions' and it has similarly blocked protests.

Sources for further information:

http://www.gidreform.org/dsm5.html

http://www.genderpsychology.org/psychology/dsm_v_workgroup.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSM-V