A Russian official has said that
transgender people in Russia will not be barred from driving under
new road safety regulations announced last week.
The AP reported that the regulations
prohibit transsexuals, transvestites and others with sexual
“disorders” from getting behind the wheel of a car, ostensibly
for medical reasons.
But Oleg Salagai, spokesman for the
Health Ministry, told Thomson Reuters Foundation that the changes
would affect only those suffering from chronic or prolonged mental
disorders with severe or persistent symptoms or, according to
Salagai, less than one percent of patients in the category.
Authorities based in part their
regulations on “mental and behavioral disorders” defined by the
World Health Organization (WHO).
A WHO spokesperson told the AP that it
had not endorsed this use of its classifications.
“That is certainly not the intent of
WHO's classifications,” said Shekhar Saxena, director of WHO's
mental health department.
Saxena said that the classifications
were meant to provide uniform diagnoses around the globe.
WHO is expected to revise its
International Classification of Diseases in 2017.