Other forms: destigmatizing; destigmatized; destigmatizes
To destigmatize something is to erase any sense of shame, scandal, or embarrassment that's commonly associated with it. A celebrity can help destigmatize a disease by talking about their own experience with it.
Stigmatizing means unfairly stereotyping or labeling a person, characteristic, or situation so that society develops a negative view of them. There can be a stigma associated with mental illness, divorce, poverty, and addiction, marking them with a kind of shame. Destigmatizing people or conditions involves changing the way others think about them, replacing the stigma with a sense of normalcy. Destigmatize comes from de-, "not," and the Greek root stigma, "tattoo mark or brand."