Russia has now placed a driving ban on transgender people. According to a report by Travelers Today on Jan. 11, those with a so-called ‘sex disorder’ and even those with a mental disorder are now banned from ever getting their driver’s license. Apparently, this new ban is supposed to decrease the amount of traffic accidents that have been happening in the past in Russia. Those who are transgender and those who have mental illnesses such as voyeurism, exhibitionism, and fetishism are all now banned from ever getting their driver’s license in Russia.
According to the Washington Post, the Russian Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev has been really worried about the traffic accidents in the country. In fact, there were 200,000 traffic accidents that happened in 2011 that killed 28,000 people in Russia. Although he has every right to worry about people getting into a car accident, this does not mean that transgender people are the reason behind these troubling statistics.
Many people are very angry over this ban. In fact, this is what a Russian attorney, Maria Bast, who is a transgender woman herself, had to say about this driving ban.
People who fall in those classifications are legally capable.
She has also called the new driving ban ‘immoral’ and ‘discriminatory.’ She also stated that:
Transsexualism doesn’t impact their driving in any way.
There are many citizens of Russia as well as Human Rights organizations who have spoken out against this driving ban on transgender and people with mental illnesses. The Prime Minister also said that being transgender is a mental illness itself.
