Transgender people in Russia banned from driving, says legal amendment

Shaun Walker in Moscow
The Guardian, Friday 9 January 2015 15.03 GMT

Transgender people have been banned from driving in Russia, according to a new legal amendment published this week.

The regulations, which affect people deemed to have “sexual disorders”, also affect , fetishists, voyeurs, exhibitionists and transvestites, and were immediately condemned by human rights activists as discriminatory.

The amendment to the law listing medical impediments to driving was signed by prime minister Dmitry Medvedev at the end of last year, but only published this week.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

The amendments give a long list of physical and mental disabilities which are legal impediments to driving, including conditions such as serious visual impairment or paralysis.

But the most controversial section is the list of sexual preferences and conditions given, including paedophilia, sado-masochism and exhibitionism, as well as “fetishism”, which is described as people who gain sexual arousal from inanimate objects. Transsexuals and transvestites are also on the list, which is drawn from the World Health Organisation’s list of “gender identity disorders” and “disorders of sexual preference.”

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]