Charlie Lowthian-Rickert, left, who is a transgender female, is comforted by her dad Chris Rickert and friends after speaking along side Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould during an announcement in the foyer of the house of commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, May 17, 2016, regarding legislation on gender identity and gender expression. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has put forward a bill to extend human rights protections to transgender Canadians. Wilson-Raybould said Tuesday the law is necessary to make it unequivocal that transgender persons have the right to live free from discrimination, hate propaganda and hate crimes. (Sean Kilpatrick /The Canadian Press via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark is preparing to change the law so that being transgender will no longer be considered a mental disorder.

Flemming Moeller Mortensen, deputy chairman of Parliament’s Health Committee, says all nine parties in the assembly have agreed to change the law by Jan. 1 next year.

Tuesday’s agreement clears the way for the government to submit a formal proposal to change theHealth Ministry’s guidelines.

Moeller Mortensen said Denmark has lost patience with the World Health Organization, which has come under pressure to stop classifying transgender identity as mental disorder in its clinical guidelines.

He said Denmark will go it alone because it “wants to be front-runner like when we became the first country in the world to recognize same-sex partnership” in 1989.