'Kapde Nahi Utaareinge': Mumbai's Queer Community Opposes Transgender Persons Bill; To Gather At Azad Maidan On Wednesday Demanding Withdrawal

Mumbai, March 24: Mumbai's queer community has strongly opposed the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Bill 2026 with the movement ‘Kapde Nahi Utaareinge’ (won't remove our clothes).

While the bill was passed in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, the queer community has accused the bill of being exclusionary towards the majority of the community, and that it takes away their right to self-identify themselves as other cisgender people.

Campaign launched against proposed amendments

The campaign was launched by Mumbai Queer Pride, a prominent collective of LGBTQIA+ individuals, in a direct protest against the proposed bill, which the government claims will provide protection to those transgender people who face social exclusion due to their biological condition.

However, the queer community across the country has strongly opposed the bill, highlighting that the amendment introduces provisions of physical examination by medical boards and bureaucratic gatekeeping that “threatens to strip transgender individuals of their fundamental right to bodily autonomy and self-determination.”

Activists raise concerns over exclusion

Zainab Patel, a trans rights activist and a petitioner in the 2014 NALSA judgement which guaranteed self-identification without any medical examination, said that the new bill recognises only four transgender communities, including Kinner, Hijra, Aravani and Jogta communities, while skipping others.

“Even after 79 years of independence, a law is being proposed to empower someone else to identify us. They decided to fundamentally change our life but did not care to consult us,” she said.

Key demands outlined at press conference

At a press conference organised at the Mumbai Press Club on Tuesday, Mumbai Queer Pride issued non-negotiable demands, including absolute withdrawal of the bill, referral to the parliamentary standing committee, upholding the 2014 NALSA judgement, scrapping the provision of penalising families and allies, as well as consultation with the transgender and non-binary community.

Concerns over loss of self-identification rights

The core of the protest centres on the bill’s departure from the landmark 2014 NALSA judgment. Activists argue that the legislation replaces the constitutional right to self-identification with mandatory physical scrutiny.

“My body is not state property. We will not allow a bunch of bureaucrats to play God with our identities or subject us to humiliating physical scrutiny. This bill is a violent intrusion into our most private spaces, and we are drawing a hard, non-negotiable line in the sand – our bodies, our rules, our autonomy," said transgender activist Harish Iyer.

Bureaucratic hurdles and exclusion highlighted

Another transwoman activist, Jamini Bavishkar, claimed that the official process to transition from one gender to another is a tedious one and said that the new bill will make it more bureaucracy-dependent.

“The bureaucrats or the government have no right to decide my gender. If cisgender people do not have to go to hospitals to identify their gender, how can it be acceptable for us? We won't be removing our clothes in front of any medical practitioners to assert our gender,” she said.

Allegations of criminalising allies

The community collectively alleged that the amendment will lead to criminalising trans allies and chosen families due to vague terms like ‘coercion’.

Trans man and activist Shine Rahman highlighted the specific erasure of trans men as a category within the text, noting that the bill does not understand the transgender community and the issues faced by them.

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Protest planned at Azad Maidan

A huge gathering of the queer community is scheduled to take place at Azad Maidan on Wednesday to oppose the bill and demand its withdrawal. LGBTQIA+ individuals, organisations, collectives and their allies from Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai are expected to participate in the protest.

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