Hundreds of demonstrators marched Friday in Peru’s capital Lima to call for the repeal of recent legislation that classifies transgender individuals as having a mental illness to provide them access to health benefits.

The law includes transgender identities as mental health conditions in the country’s Essential Health Insurance Plan, which outlines the health conditions covered by health insurance policies. Activists, including Gianna Camacho of the Coordinacion Nacional LGTBIQ+, said the law was transphobic and offensive because it defined their identity as an illness.

The Peruvian government approved a law last week that classifies people who identify as transgender, cross-dressers, and those with gender identity disorders as having “illnesses” that qualify them for mental health services from both public and private providers.

Following this occurrence, around 500 protesters took to the streets of Lima, the capital of Peru, to voice their demands for the repeal of the recently approved law.

The Peruvian Ministry of Health released a statement shortly after the law’s enactment, expressing its opposition to the stigmatisation of LGBTQ+ individuals and clarifying that the legal language aims to enhance health coverage. The ministry further stated that it does not consider sexual orientation and gender identity an indicator of illness, and condemned the practice of conversion therapy. The ministry said that it would not repeal the decree, arguing that doing so would remove “the right to care” as provided by the country.

The protests coincided with the International Day Against Homophobia, a yearly event since 2005 that marks the removal of homosexuality, once considered a mental illness, from the World Health Organisation’s International Classification of Diseases on May 17, 1990.