00:00Will I be asked to strip in front of the administration?
00:02Right now, if I am sitting in front of you, I am nullified.
00:06It is to decide who is trans enough to get the rights, which is not fair.
00:12No medical examination can prove that a particular person is a man.
00:18Do not debate on the lives that you have never lived.
00:21A new law, a new definition and a question that's at the heart of it all.
00:25Who gets to decide your identity?
00:27India's Transgender Persons Protection of Rights Amendment Bill 2026 has sparked intense debate across the country.
00:34What is right with this amendment? Everything is wrong in it.
00:37I am extremely heartbroken, shattered and very disappointed that this bill came out, which is not a progression, which is
00:45a regression.
00:46At this point of time, all of us are in shock.
00:48It's very disheartening. It's absolutely disgusting.
00:53Supporters say it brings structure and safeguards, but many in the trans community say it does something far more serious.
00:59It takes aware their right to self-identify.
01:02This bill only recognizes these people who are coming from a socio-cultural groups.
01:06Like, I am a transgender man. I do not belong to any of these groups.
01:10And this bill has erased me completely legally from that law which was protecting me.
01:16So, let me tell you, who is your bill accordingly today?
01:19Who is trans-con?
01:20Which you have added to the communities?
01:22They are also living on self-identification.
01:25So, this bill says, one thing that says,
01:30that you should erase trans people from the Indian society.
01:34You should remove it.
01:35You should not give it.
01:36So, after that,
01:38that you should not call them for your prayers.
01:41Years after the landmark Nalsa versus Union of India judgment,
01:44which recognized trans people's right to self-identify,
01:48the new amendment shifts that power from individuals to medical boards and the state.
01:53So, gender is a social construct.
01:56I say that I am a genderqueer person because I do not want to fit into those two boxes that
02:01are available.
02:03And it has no medical examination can prove that a particular person is a man,
02:11a particular person is a woman or a particular person is a genderqueer person.
02:15Now, the system will tell me what my gender identity is.
02:18And you can see that the medical board,
02:20if I am a transgender person or not,
02:23they will ask me to prove how I will prove it.
02:26Will I be asked to strip in front of the administration?
02:28These things are not done with other narratives.
02:31So, I am not a nation.
02:34Is this not a question on my genderqueer?
02:36Nobody has the right to decide somebody's gender.
02:40When you can't decide a man's gender,
02:42when you can't decide a woman's gender,
02:44then you can't decide a transgender community.
02:48So, what does that mean for people living these realities every day?
02:53Constantly go to the metro line.
02:55Where do you go to the metro line?
02:56To understand that if you have a girl,
02:59you will have a girl.
03:00You will have a girl.
03:01You will have a girl.
03:02You will have a girl.
03:02You will have a girl.
03:03You will have a separate line.
03:04You will have separate washrooms.
03:07Being a trans man,
03:08And my identity is not gone.
03:11Until and unless
03:13I'll do surgery
03:41The bill significantly narrows the definition
03:44of who is recognised as transgender.
03:46It now focuses largely on socio-cultural identities
03:49such as hijra or kinder communities
03:51as well as people with biological or intersex variations.
03:55Trans for us, for us Indians,
03:57has long been an umbrella term
03:59which encompasses a lot of identities.
04:02Transgenders are all over the place.
04:05They are in your judicial system,
04:07they are in your police system,
04:08they are in your corporates,
04:09they are everywhere,
04:11they are in your sports.
04:12Then what is the trans representation
04:15that we are being portrayed as?
04:17You do not have to look a certain type
04:19to be qualified as a trans person.
04:21Even if you say as whatever you want to say
04:23and if you say that you're a trans person,
04:24you are a goddamn trans person.
04:27The amendment also introduces stricter criminal provisions.
04:30It proposes 5 to 10 years of imprisonment
04:32in cases where a person is coerced,
04:34mutilated or forcibly made to adopt
04:36a transgender identity.
05:00If a person undergoes gender-affirming surgery,
05:03they are required to apply again
05:05for a revised identity certificate.
05:07In addition,
05:07hospitals are mandated
05:08to inform the authorities,
05:10specifically the district magistrate,
05:12about such procedures.
05:36Critics say there's a clear shift towards
05:38a more biological framework of defining gender.
05:41It places greater emphasis on biological traits
05:44and intersex variations
05:45while reducing the importance of self-identified gender
05:48and lived experience.
06:16And at the center of all these changes
06:18are real people navigating identity, dignity and the right to be seen on their own terms.
06:24For many, this isn't about just policy or paperwork.
06:27It's about recognition, autonomy and living with dignity.
06:50Is the state or, you know, the DM going to give me and like sort of prove their gender identity
06:58to me?
06:59If they can't do this, then why should I?
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