🏳️‍⚧️
Take Action

STOP THE
TRANSGENDER PROTECTION
AMENDMENT BILL

The government is attempting to erase self-perceived gender identities and subject the trans community to draconian policing.

Introduced by Dr. Virendra Kumar (Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment) in the Lok Sabha, the "Transgender Protection Amendment Bill 2026" seeks to drastically alter the 2019 Act. It explicitly excludes non-binary, gender-fluid, and queer individuals who do not fit narrow socio-cultural definitions. It also incorrectly conflates transgender people with intersex people, ignoring the fundamentally different issues (such as forced infant surgeries) faced by intersex individuals.

MAIL THE MINISTRY NOWREAD THE DRAFT BILL ↗

Why This Bill is Dangerous

1. Erasure of Identity

The 2026 bill explicitly excludes "persons with different sexual orientations and self-perceived sexual identities." This completely ignores the reality of many trans individuals and rolls back years of progress in recognizing diverse gender identities under NALSA.

2. Intersex & Trans Conflation

The bill fails to legally distinguish between transgender people and intersex people. This blunt categorization harms intersex individuals who require specific, distinct protections (such as bans on non-consensual surgeries on intersex infants).

3. Intrusive Gatekeeping

It introduces elaborate, rigid criteria for identifying transgender persons. This forces individuals through dehumanizing medical and bureaucratic hurdles just to exist legally and access basic rights.

4. Targeted Punishments

Under the guise of protection, the bill introduces "graded punishments" that disproportionately target the transgender community. It creates severe criminal penalties for socio-cultural practices, effectively policing and criminalizing trans lives.

5. Unequal Protection and Lack of Gender-Neutral Rape Laws

In the substituted Section 18(d), the bill maintains a shockingly low maximum punishment of only two years imprisonment for sexual abuse against a transgender person. This severe legal inequality treats transgender and intersex lives as less valuable than others. The bill wholly fails to address the urgent necessity for comprehensive, gender-neutral rape laws to protect transgender men, transgender women, and intersex persons from sexual violence.

Mail the Ministry

Stand with the trans community. Fill in your details below to generate a pre-written email objecting to the bill. Clicking send will open your default email application.

Having trouble?If the button doesn't work (e.g., on some mobile browsers), please physically copy the template on the right and email it to:

min-sje@nic.in
To Dr. Virendra Kumar and the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, I am writing to express my strong, unequivocal opposition to the Transgender Protection Amendment Bill 2026. The 2026 amendment bill is a severe step backward, fundamentally undermining the rights of both transgender and intersex persons in India. By attempting to arbitrarily redefine "transgender" to exclude persons with different sexual orientations and self-perceived identities, the bill willfully erases non-binary and queer transgender individuals, directly violating the Supreme Court's NALSA judgment which affirmed the right to self-identification. Furthermore, the bill fails to meaningfully distinguish between transgender people and intersex people. Intersex individuals face unique medical and social challenges (such as forced, non-consensual surgeries on intersex infants) that cannot be conflated with the experiences of transgender people. A flawed, blanket legal definition harms both communities. The introduction of rigid, gatekept identification criteria and targeted punishments will only serve to further police and criminalize our communities, ignoring rampant institutional violence. Crucially, the substituted Section 18(d) of the bill continues to prescribe a shockingly low maximum punishment of just two years imprisonment for sexual abuse against a transgender person. This is a gross systemic inequality compared to the strict penal laws for sexual violence against cisgender women. Transgender and intersex lives are not worth less. It is past time for the government to introduce comprehensive and equal gender-neutral rape laws. I urge you to immediately withdraw the Transgender Protection Amendment Bill 2026, consult extensively with both the transgender and intersex communities, and commit to creating laws that genuinely protect our rights, ensure equal protections through gender-neutral rape laws, and respect our bodily autonomy. Sincerely, [Your Name]
SEND EMAIL NOW ↗