Cricketer and reality TV personality Anaya Bangar recently took to Instagram to share a distressing account of a “traumatic medical session” she had to endure as part of the mandatory gender affirmation process under the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Bill, 2026. “I was shocked when I was asked to undress in front of a team of doctors just to get my gender affirmation done post-surgery,” Anaya says.
Cleared in March of this year, the Bill has sparked debate regarding the self-identification rights of transgender individuals and the mandatory medicalised processes required for legal recognition. Sharing details of her experience, she adds, “As you know, I underwent gender-affirming surgery in Thailand four months ago. Following my return, I was required to undergo a government-mandated affirmation process to update my identity documents.”
Regarding the procedure, she shares that she visited a government official and was instructed to go to a hospital for “further clearance.”
“I was allotted a hospital, and I went there expecting to meet a gynaecologist—that was all I anticipated,” she says. “However, I was taken aback when I was ushered into a room filled with a group of male and female doctors and asked to undress in front of the entire group. I thought perhaps only the female doctors would stay and the rest would move out, but that didn’t happen.”
Anaya notes that it took her three weeks to process the experience before she could speak publicly about it. “After consulting with other members of the transgender community, I learned that such a procedure is a standardised, albeit harrowing, part of the current process and we have to go through it. The trauma of the experience kept me from sharing the ordeal with my family until recently.”
{{/usCountry}}Anaya notes that it took her three weeks to process the experience before she could speak publicly about it. “After consulting with other members of the transgender community, I learned that such a procedure is a standardised, albeit harrowing, part of the current process and we have to go through it. The trauma of the experience kept me from sharing the ordeal with my family until recently.”
{{/usCountry}}“It makes me question the situations people like me have to go through at different points in our lives,” she shares. “It breaks my heart that society still does not accept us the way we should be accepted; in fact, we are going backward instead of forward.”