In recent years, there has been a significant improvement in the rights of sexual minorities and rebels in Argentina. Through legislation that recognized marriage equality in 2010, the inclusion of sexual and gender diversity in the armed forces in 2011, the gender identity and anti-hate crimes law in 2012, the same-sex couples’ assisted reproduction law in 2013, and the anti-discrimination law and transvestite labor quota law in the province of Buenos Aires in 2015, Argentina became the first country in Latin America to protect the rights of the LGBTQIA+ population. Nevertheless, despite the efforts of communities and campaigners in recent decades, traditional restitution are still pending for LGBTQIA+ sufferers of the military dictatorship.
Right-wing populism has risen in Brazilian politics as the financial crisis has worsened during the post-pandemic period, allowing Javier Milei to win the 2023 presidential election. The victory of the right in 2023 is particularly concerning for sexual and gender minorities because of the direct attacks Milei launched during his presidential campaign, not just against the LGBTQIA+ community but also against gender policies, particularly the law on the voluntary interruption of pregnancy passed on December 30, 2020.
Additionally, Milei used a conservative firmness in political debates to address the 2023 presidential election. In those conversations, Milei’s rejection of the government’s history of dictatorships properly revictimized all who were carefully tortured, disappeared, and killed during that time. With potential wider effects on the Southern Cone and throughout Latin America, Milei’s victory poses a danger to liberalism, and especially to the privileges of sexual and gender minorities in Argentina.
Far from being isolated to Argentina, this trend is taking place on a global level. Right-wing nationalist movements and actions in the West have attacked liberal laws regarding women, both in Europe and the Americas. With the increase of autocratic governments in Hungary, Italy, Poland, Russia, Serbia, and Turkey in the last century, sexual and gender minorities have been subjected to hate speech and discriminatory practices promoted by right-wing nationalist politicians. These populist movements, particularly when they attempt to delegitimize opponents and exclude them from the political arena, are particularly harmful to democracies. Likewise, sectors of the European right—such as the Alternative für Deutschland in Germany, Partij voor de Vrijheid in the Netherlands, and VOX in Spain—have directed attacks against the LGBTQIA+ community. Similarly, right-wing populists in the Americas—including Brazil, Colombia, the United States, Guatemala, and Uruguay—support this position.
Campaigns promoting hatred and the marginalization of sexual and gender minorities have frequently targeted the LGBTQIA+ population as a political strategy to sway reactionary and conservative sectors in Western societies, ultimately aiming to reclaim executive and legislative power. It also serves as a distraction from significant issues affecting their societies, such as inflation, violence, corruption, poverty, and unemployment, among others.
Thus, collective attacks are a component of a well-established formula designed to demonstrate its effectiveness in various geographies. For example, the far-right’s political campaign to delegitimize the government’s agreement with the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias (FARC) in Colombia in 2016 exposed the LGBTQIA+ population and the section seeking reparations for victims based on sexuality or gender in the Colombian armed conflict. Brazil is also notable for the high rate of transfemicides and the direct attacks on LGBTQIA+ people by far-right populist Jair Bolsonaro during his rule (2019-2022). Finally, the United States and Donald Trump’s presidency between 2017 and 2021 serve as examples of authoritarian right-wing politicians’ efforts to undermine the rights of the LGBTQIA+ population, particularly the labor rights of trans and non-binary individuals.
Milei used the same method of stigmatizing gender minorities that other right-wing populists used to promote their candidate for president in Argentina in 2023. Milei’s campaign also turned anti-abortion discourse into one of its main platforms. His opposition to free medical care for gender reassignment treatments and mandatory sex education in schools has also directly impacted the LGBTQIA+ population. This anti-LGBTQIA+ discourse also appeared on the regional scale during the Argentine elections. Ricardo Bussi, elected national deputy for Milei’s party, Libertad Avanza, has equated minority gender identities with a disability, stripping the state of its role in protecting the rights of the trans and non-binary community.
It is crucial to point out that these homophobic and misogynistic discourses occur within a larger national discussion that encompasses all social sectors, defining the ultimate function of the state during the military dictatorship that occurred between 1976 and 1983 and its need to pay reparations to the victims of the dictatorship. The report by Néstor Perlongher, which was secretly distributed by the Commission for the Rights of Gay People in 1981, is one of the documents that mobilized a portion of the LGBTQIA+ population. This document revealed the extent of state terrorism during the dictatorship, compiling testimonies of homosexual, lesbian, and transgender individuals who were detained and tortured.
The Milei government’s first attack on sexual and gender minorities is likely to be directed at the free coverage of gender-affirming treatments and the decriminalization of abortion. It is crucial to distinguish between campaigns against trans rights and government-sponsored anti-trans policies, according to Sonia Corrêa, coordinator of sexuality and policy. As Sonia Corrêa points out, these executive mechanisms may not initially have a national impact, but they could be implemented at the federal level. For instance, Ricardo Bussi’s speeches serve as an example of a brutal attack on the Tucumán community.
The new president’s first actions include the elimination of zero-positive treatment subsidies and the creation of a sub-secretariat under the Ministry of Genders, Women, and Diversity. This decision jeopardizes the representation of marginalized sexual and gender identities in the national agenda and represents an initial setback in the institutionalization promoted by the LGBTQIA+ movement in recent decades. If the National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Racism (INADI), which was established through the package of reforms known as Omnibus in the final weeks of December 2023, is closed, it also poses a serious threat to the community’s rights if it is approved by Congress.
Due to the magnitude of the global scale that the return of hate speech to institutional levels and discriminatory policies against sexual and gender minorities can have, the case of Argentina is of great importance. The state’s attitude toward the rights of sexual and gender minorities is important to be aware of. The new wave of right-wing populism could result in Milei’s government undermining the LGBTQIA+ community’s oppression and institutional exclusion, as well as reviving the trend.
