(Transcript from World News Radio)
Could your sexual orientation affect your ability to drive?
According to some Russian officials, it could - and under a controversial plan they're going to try to stop transgender people from driving.
Olga Klepova reports.
(Click below to hear a related item in Russian)
Last year, over 27,000 people died on Russian roads - which is 19 people per 100,000 population.
That's almost four times Australia's rate.
A recent decree issued by the Russian government designed to lower the road toll includes a vast list of medical conditions when driving should be limited or fully banned.
The most controversial part of the decree relates to psychological disorders.
The decree links some disorders to sexual orientation and preferences, including transsexualism, transvestism, voyeurism and exhibitionism.
It suggests that anyone with chronic psychological problems because of such links should not drive.
But human rights groups reject the move - arguing it's just another example of discrimination by the Russian government against LGBT (Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender) people.
Maria Bast is chairwoman of the Association of Russian Lawyers for Human Rights, and also happens to be a transgender person.
"Russian society is the same as other society in the world but there is state propaganda government propaganda among Russian society which devoted LGBT- people discredit[s] this group explains that LGBT- transgender people is a disease".
Westerly Windina, used to be Peter Drouyn, a champion Australian surfer.
Now a transgender retiree, she compares the Russian decree to a witch-hunt.
"It's a bit like medieval age when many women were called witches and burned at stakes simply because they defied the king or the queen of the day, the noble man, the landlord and all the rest of it".
The Russian decree aimed at reducing the road toll uses an International Classification of Diseases drawn up by the World Health Organisation.
Transsexualism is listed in the mental health section under gender identity disorders.
In the Western world, including Australia, an American system known as DSM-V is more commonly used.
Under this system, transsexualism isn't automatically regarded as a mental disorder - though it can lead to psychological problems.
Professor of psychiatry at Monash University, Nicholas Keks, explains.
"In the DSM-V it is just a general category of gender dysphoria. Dysphoria means there is unhappiness or a difficulty with the issue, and if there is unhappiness we have a problem."
Under the Russian decree, people would be banned from driving if they are diagnosed with chronic or protracted psychological conditions.
The decree doesn't specify how this will be actually defined - or enforced.
Professor Keks agrees with the argument that some people with mental problems shouldn't drive, at least temporarily.
"49% of general population will experience psychiatric illness during the life time and it's clear that the vast majority of people with psychiatric disorder should be presumed absolutely able to drive. But in some younger people very severe forms of illnesses like schizophrenia and at times some people with illnesses such as bipolar disorder can have impairment in their capacity to drive which may then recover and some psychiatric medications can at least temporarily affect capacity to drive."
Westerly Windina says the Russian decree reflects a reluctance to accept gender diversity in the modern world.
She says it wasn't that long ago that people who were different from the mainstream were subjected to public ridicule in Australia.
And amid the controversy in Russia, she wants the public to realise that the battle isn't fully over for LGBT rights here.
"It seems to me that there is political acceptance in Australia that one should not label or make fun of etc, but people are not giving enough thought to the disadvantages and the suffering that people go through when natural evolution has been mutated."
Professor Nicholas Keks says people with psychiatric problems have often been the victims of discrimination in many parts of the world.
And he says using such discrimination is not a way to tackle Russia's road toll problem.
"There is a long history of stigmatizing people with psychiatric disorder and making gross generalizations about the effects of psychiatric disorders on the ability to drive you would prevent accidents by forbidding everyone to drive - there wouldn't be any accidents."
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