“We will fight”: Sanjo Steve on the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Act, 2026

On March 30, 2026, a day before the International Transgender Day of Visibility, the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Bill, 2026 received Presidential assent, officially becoming law, despite widespread protests and criticism from across the country.

In this conversation with The Leaflet, Sanjo Steve, a trans man who works as a Project Assistant with the Transgender Cell of the Social Justice Department in Kerala and a trans rights activist, reflects on what this law means for rights, recognition, and resistance. Sanjo describes the 2026 Amendment as “fundamentally regressive.” By shifting authority from the individual to medical and bureaucratic systems and removing the right to self-identification, he argues, the law strikes at the heart of transgender autonomy. He also criticises the absence of any meaningful consultation with the community, points to a critical conceptual confusion within the legislation between transgender and intersex identities, and flags the Amendment's deeply troubling implication that transgender identity may be something imposed or coerced.

Today, on International Transgender Day of Visibility, we ask: what does it mean to be seen by a state that refuses to let you define yourself?