New Delhi- Protests against the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Bill, 2026 have intensified across India over the past week, ever since the bill was tabled in the Lok Sabha on March 13. Transgender, queer, and allied communities have taken to the streets in cities including Delhi, Pune, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata, and Bhubaneswar, holding demonstrations, press conferences, and online campaigns with hashtags like #RejectTransBill.

Thousands have mobilized both offline and online, signing petitions and displaying slogans such as “Trans lives are not for the state to redefine,” “Identity is not a certificate,” and calls to restore self-identification rights upheld by the Supreme Court's 2014 NALSA judgment.

Queer collectives and activists have met with political representatives to voice concerns, urging immediate withdrawal of what they describe as a regressive rollback of trans rights. Protests highlight fears that the amendments replace self-perceived gender identity with mandatory medical board certifications, narrow definitions of who qualifies as transgender (potentially excluding trans men, non-binary, and diverse identities), and introduce punitive provisions that could criminalize support networks.

MP Saket Gokhale termed the bill "regressive". He states, "The new Transgender Persons Amendment Bill, 2026 introduced in Parliament is REGRESSIVE & is a calculated step by the Modi to snatch away the rights of transgender persons who are subjected to oppression in every facet of life. This pathetic Bill MUST be withdrawn!

Adding to the growing opposition, the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), led by Prakash Ambedkar has publicly rejected the amendments, criticizing them for removing the right to self-identification, handing authority to medical boards, and severely restricting recognition of transgender identities. The VBA has demanded immediate withdrawal of the bill and restoration of NALSA protections.

Kerala’s first transgender advocate Padma Laxmi says the proposed bill is a complete violation of natural justice. "After this bill is implemented, if I am applying for a transgender identity card, I need to face one medical examination under a medical board and appear in front of a judicial magistrate. After that, if the judicial magistrate doubts me on my identity or this person may fluctuate from their identity, then I need to appear before another medical board. This will exclude so many marginalised people from this community. This is abuse of the fundamental right," she asserted.

Grace Banu, first Trans Engineer and an activists said, "At a time when trans rights must be strengthened, this amendment removes self-identification and centralises control over identity, deepening gatekeeping and reinforcing state and familial control. It disproportionately impacts Dalit, Bahujan, and Adivasi (DBA) trans communities, whose lives are shaped by caste-based discrimination, institutional barriers, and fragile access to care and recognition, thereby intensifying caste-based exclusion and structural injustice rather than addressing it."

In a strongly worded statement released amid this wave of resistance, the Dalit-Bahujan-Adivasi Trans-Queer Panthers National Network (DBATQ Panthers) has condemned the bill as a direct assault on human dignity, self-respect, and autonomy, in violation of constitutional morality as articulated by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.

The group argues that the amendments restrict recognition largely to specific socio-cultural communities (such as hijra, kinner, aravani, jogta, or those with congenital intersex variations), systematically erasing diverse identities from marginalized caste and religious backgrounds, including Khwaja sira, kothi, manglamukhi, nupi maanba, thirunangai, thirunambi, thirunar, dhurani, and others while completely sidelining transmasculine communities.

They criticize the reintroduction of medico-bureaucratic gatekeeping through medical boards, calling it a violation of Article 21 rights to self-determination and echoing global anti-gender trends that medicalize and control gender. The proposed Section 18 criminal provision, imposing up to five years' imprisonment for "alluring" or "forcing" someone to become transgender, is seen as ripe for misuse against supportive families, chosen communities, caregivers, parents, organizations, and networks, disproportionately harming Dalit, Bahujan, Adivasi, and Muslim trans-queer individuals already facing carceral and familial violence.

Linking these changes to broader state patterns of controlling self-determination including denial of separate electorates for Dalits, suppression of Adivasi resistance, anti-conversion laws, revocation of Article 370, racial marginalization in the Northeast, and linguistic imposition, the DBATQ Panthers reject the dominant queer-trans movement's reliance on "Hindu liberalism" and scriptural tolerance narratives. Instead, they foreground anti-caste feminist traditions, tracing state gender control to casteist texts like the Manusmriti.

Quoting Dr. Ambedkar ("For an individual as well as for a society, there is a gulf between merely living and living worthily"), Periyar, and Dr. Abhay Xaxa ("I am not your Data"), the statement demands a shift toward comprehensive social and economic justice, including horizontal reservations for trans communities, particularly DBA trans persons, to ensure caste-based justice within trans frameworks. They call for material redistribution, education, jobs, representation, legal safeguards, and structural transformation, insisting that "you cannot build anything on the foundations of caste."

The DBATQ Panthers invite signatures from queer-trans and gender-sexual variant individuals from SC, ST, and OBC communities to expand their network and strategize further actions centering social justice in the LGBTQIA+ movement.