Goa Queer and Trans Collective to Protest Against Controversial Transgender Amendment Bill | Goa News

Panaji: The Goa Queer and Trans Collective will protest at Azad Maidan, Panaji, on March 22 against the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Bill 2026 presented in the Lok Sabha. They called it a regressive law that bases itself on transmedicalism (the idea that gender identity must be validated through medical or biological criteria) and said it will fail to protect trans persons and exploit vulnerabilities.The collective said the legislation, if passed, will dismantle constitutional protections, criminalise realities, and subject transgender individuals to invasive control. It said the bill creates arbitrary classification within transgender persons without scientific basis, relying on vague standards such as “genuine oppressed persons” or “those in need of protection”.“It recognises only socio-cultural groups while excluding others, despite all transgender persons having the constitutional right to self-determination,” the collective said in a press note.“The bill shifts the foundation of gender recognition from self-perceived identity to state-controlled medical certification, placing transgender persons under invasive scrutiny by administrative and medical bodies,” it added.The bill narrows the definition of transgender to exclude transwomen and transmen, trans-masculine and trans-feminine persons, and erases genderqueer and non-binary identities and conflates intersex variations with gender identity, reflecting a lack of social understanding, the collective added.