Updated 10.50pm

RUSSIA HAS PASSED a controversial law banning transvestites, transsexuals and people with other so-called “disorders” from driving, prompting sharp criticism from rights activists, including a prominent Kremlin advisor.

The legislation, which took effect this week, says its aims at lowering the country’s high death rate from road accidents.

“Disorders”

It prohibits people diagnosed with a range of medical, personality and gender identity disorders from taking the wheel.

Though these include blindness and epilepsy, it also lists transvestites and transsexuals as well as people with sexual fetishes, voyeurs, paedophiles, pathological gamblers and kleptomaniacs

Passed by government decree signed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, the law follows other legislation viewed as discriminating against people because of their sexual orientation.

Since returning to the Kremlin for a third term in 2012, President Vladimir Putin has listed “healthy family” and traditional values as priorities and pushed an increasingly conservative agenda.

This has included a law banning any so-called “propaganda” or display of homosexuality in front of minors, which was decried by rights activists, Western government and stars including Madonna as a crackdown on gays and lesbians.

Russia has also banned adoptions by gay parents.

While Moscow formally decriminalised homosexuality in 1993, homophobia remains socially acceptable and few public figures have come out as gay. Human Rights Watch in December slammed Putin’s government for what it called “inaction” against rising homophobic attacks.

Reaction online

Much of the reaction online has been of bafflement or upset:

Wtf is wrong with the world???? Transsexual people can't get their license in Russia? Is this for real? — 𝔗𝔦𝔫𝔞🕊 (@tinaiscuter) January 9, 2015 Source: Tina☁️ /Twitter

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Russia, stop being so stupid. Transsexual & transgender people are now not allowed driving licences. http://t.co/KzuG52jryQ — Ian LeBruce (@LeBruce) January 9, 2015 Source: Ian LeBruce /Twitter

Transsexual and transgender people will no longer qualify for driving licenses in Russia. Words fail me http://t.co/i2Xw29hL0F — Amy Carrington (@amycarrington88) January 9, 2015 Source: Amy Carrington /Twitter

Russia says transsexual and transgender people will be barred from driving on medical grounds, in a controversial move. Pardon me??? — Little Mac (@littlemac0612) January 9, 2015 Source: Little Mac /Twitter

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Absurd :( >> Russia's listed transsexual & transgender ppl among those who will no longer qualify 4 driving licenses http://t.co/vF61iHSSFD — Selena Cuffe (@selenacuffe) January 9, 2015 Source: Selena Cuffe /Twitter

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Backing the law

Those backing the new law include Vitaly Milonov, a regional lawmaker in Saint Petersburg and one of the strongest supporters of the law against gay “propaganda”. He praised it as an “absolutely correct and timely decision,” in comments to the Moskovsky Komsomolets daily.

“Those doctors and sex experts who oppose it are themselves basically perverts,” said Milonov, known for past homophobic outbursts.

A member of the rights council that advises the Kremlin, however, publicly challenged the new driving code as a potential breach of human rights.

Yelena Masyuk, a journalist, highlighted the “possible unfairness of removing the right to drive for those suffering from disorders of gender identity and sexual preference,” in a reaction Thursday on the council’s website.

“I don’t understand why, for example, people with fetishes, kleptomaniacs and transsexuals can’t drive a car,” she wrote. “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,” she wrote.

It was not immediately clear how the law would be enforced, but Russians must undergo a medical exam to obtain a licence so anyone “diagnosed” by a doctor with any of the listed conditions could presumably be refused.

Critics of the law

The Association of Advocates of Russia for Rights joined the critics with a statement saying the driving code “obviously contradicts international norms and standards.”

By banning driving for “all transgender, bi-gender and asexual people, transvestites, cross-dressers and people who need gender correction (surgery)”, it could apply to many high-profile actors and pop stars popular in Russia, the legal advocacy group said.

This could include popular drag performer Verka Serdyuchka who performed at the Eurovision Song Contest for Ukraine, it noted.

- - © AFP, 2014 with additional reporting Aoife Barry