Miss Universe Canada contestant Jenna Talackova is among more than 43,000 people supporting a change.org petition calling on the World Health Organization (WHO) to stop considering trans people mentally ill.

"Since facing and overcoming discrimination for being a transgender woman back in March -- when I was kicked out of and then re-admitted to the Miss Universe Pageant -- I've been working to fight the stigma and discrimination facing people like me," Talackova says in her letter to the WHO.

The petition was initiated by Maxwell Zachs, a cast member of UK reality show My Transsexual Summer.

The WHO now lists "transsexualism" under the category mental and behavioural disorders in its International Classification of Diseases (ICD). 

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