Protesters in Hyderabad demand scrapping trans identity bill

Demonstrators gathered in Hyderabad on Sunday to oppose a proposed piece of legislation they say would strip transgender people of their right to self-determine their own identities.

The protest, held at Dharna Chowk, was directed at the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Bill, 2026, with speakers and participants calling for its immediate withdrawal. Crowds chanted "Our Body – Our Rights," with multiple speakers describing the bill as both inhumane and a violation of fundamental rights.

Advocate G. Kiran Raj told the gathering that gender identity is an intrinsic, personal experience that cannot be adjudicated by outside authorities. He argued that transgender people typically experience a disconnect between the sex assigned to them at birth and their lived identity from an early age — and that no external body has the standing to rule on that.

Central to the protesters' objections is a provision that would require transgender individuals to appear before medical boards in order to have their gender identity officially recognised. Transmen activist Surya Raj Yadav condemned this as a direct attack on dignity, privacy, and the right to self-determination, warning that subjecting people to such scrutiny sends a deeply harmful message about whose identities are considered legitimate.

Speaker Chandramukhi raised two further concerns: that transmen are not explicitly included in the proposed amendment's protections, and that certain provisions appear to frame the Hijra community, one of South Asia's most historically significant gender-diverse communities, in criminalising terms.

The protest reflects growing alarm among trans activists and allies in India about the direction of the proposed legislation, which critics say contradicts the spirit of the original 2019 Transgender Persons Act.

If passed in its current form, the bill could roll back hard-won recognition for trans people in India, replacing the principle of self-identification with state-controlled medical gatekeeping, a pattern of regression that advocates warn is becoming disturbingly familiar across the world.