Moscow
(AFP) - Russia has passed a controversial law banning transvestites and
transsexuals from driving, prompting sharp criticism from rights activists,
including a prominent Kremlin advisor.
The
legislation that entered into force this week bans anyone diagnosed with a
range of personality and gender identity disorders, including transvestites and
transsexuals, from taking the wheel.
The list
also includes people with sexual fetishes, voyeurs and paedophiles, as well as
pathological gamblers and kleptomaniacs.
The law
follows other legislation passed in Russia discriminating against people
because of their sexual orientation.
In 2012,
President Vladimir Putin signed a law that bans providing information on gays
to minors, despite opposition from international rights activists as well as
global stars such as Madonna.
The
legislation claims to be aimed at lowering Russia's high road accident death
rate by taking drivers with certain medical conditions off the roads.
But a
member of the rights council that advises the Kremlin publicly questioned the
justification for the legislation, saying it appeared to be a breach of human
rights.
Yelena
Masyuk, a journalist and member of the Kremlin rights council, spoke out against
the driving ban in a statement Thursday on the council's website.
She
highlighted the "possible unfairness of removing the right to drive for
those suffering from disorders of gender identity and sexual preference."
"I
don't understand why, for example, people with fetishes, kleptomaniacs and
transsexuals can't drive a car," Masyuk said in her blog on the rights
council's website.
"It
seems to me that this is a breach of the rights of Russian citizens."
Russia
needs to "study global practice" and "judge whether a ban on
people with fetishes, exhibitionists, voyeurs, kleptomaniacs and others from
taking the wheel is well-grounded," Masyuk said.
The
Association of Advocates of Russia for Rights said the law bans from driving
"all transgender people, bi-gender, asexual, transvestites, cross-dressers
and people who need gender correction (surgery)."
The ban
"obviously contradicts international norms and standards," it said in
a statement.
The legal
advocacy group pointed out that the ban would cover many comedians and pop
stars popular in Russia, including drag performer Verka Serdyuchka, who
performed at the Eurovision Song Contest for Ukraine.
"If a
(male) driver is dressed as a woman and he gets recorded on a police camera,
he'll lose his licence," wrote a commentator, Kolya Bakhtinov, on Gay.ru
news website. "More and more restrictions, hello North Korea!"
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