At Russia’s psychiatry congress, doctor proposes new ‘transgender spectrum disorder’ and accuses LGBT-friendly doctors of forming ‘fifth column’

Olga Bukhanovskaya, chief physician of the Phoenix rehabilitation and treatment research center, presented a paper at the 18th Congress of Psychiatrists of Russia on what she called “transgender spectrum disorder” — a category she said includes ”homosexualism.”

The “transgender umbrella,” she argued, also encompasses “fetishistic transvestism,” personality disorder, schizotypal disorder, and “schizophrenia combined with periodic effemination.”

“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 cause of the “transgender epidemic,” the doctor argued, is “financial infusions and grants.” In Bukhanovskaya’s view, transgender people undergo “trans-instruction” from specialized supervisors and then imitate the “clinical presentation of transsexualism.”

The advancement of transgender rights in Russia, Bukhanovskaya told the congress, is carried out by a “fifth column of medicine”: “trans (LGBTQ+)-friendly doctors” (adult and child psychiatrists, endocrinologists, and gynecologists) “trans (LGBTQ+)-friendly psychologists,” and “trans (LGBTQ+)-friendly lecturers.” The last group, she argued, is responsible for “promoting gender theory and ICD-11 into the professional community, society, and the minds of patients.”

Olga Bukhanovskaya is the daughter of psychiatrist Alexander Bukhanovskiy, a renowned expert on serial killers and the author of a psychological profile of Andrei Chikatilo. Bukhanovskiy studied “transgenderism” as far back as the Soviet era. One of his students reported that at least 250 individuals had sought the psychiatrist’s counsel. More than 100 were able to change the gender designation in their identity documents and pursue hormone therapy; some underwent surgical procedures.

Olga Bukhanovskaya’s statements at the psychiatry congress largely echo official Russian propaganda. Russian authorities have designated LGBTQ+ groups as an “extremist international movement.” In reality, no such movement exists.

In 2023 — following the passage of a law banning “medical interventions aimed at sex change” — the Russian Society of Psychiatrists drafted a set of clinical guidelines titled “Disorders of Sexual Identity.” The organization acknowledged in the document that transgender people could not be “cured” and recommended referring them to psychotherapy. The guidelines were never added to the list of recommendations approved by Russia’s Health Ministry.