Milei government to ban gender affirmation surgery, hormone treatment for under-18s

President Javier Milei's government will amend Argentina’s Gender Identity Law to “prohibit hormone treatments and body adaptation surgery for people under 18 years of age.”

The move, part of Milei’s war on what he calls “wokeism” and “gender ideology,” was confirmed by Presidential Spokesperson Manuel Adorni at a press conference at the Casa Rosada on Wednesday afternoon.

“These interventions to which children are exposed are a serious risk to their physical and mental health, as they imply an interruption in their maturation process,” the official argued.

The Gender Identity Law, passed in 2012, allows minors under the age of 18 to access gender transition treatments as long as they have consent from their legal guardians or a judicial body.

"As things now stand, minors who so wish may undergo treatment and surgery to change their bodies in accordance with their self-perception," said Adorni, while recognising that minors need parental consent for hormone treatment.

"But if any of them [the parents] decide to withhold it, an appeal can be made to a judge for authorisation," he added.

"In many cases, the effects of these treatments and surgeries are irreversible," Adorni said. “Countries pioneering gender change such as the United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland and more recently the United States are backtracking, prohibiting minors from being submitted to these processes for being considered irreversible with devastating long-term consequences."

Milei’s chief spokesperson also revealed that prisoners would also be banned from requesting transfers "due to gender changes." 

"This means that if a convict is in a men's prison, he will no longer (be allowed to) ask to be transferred to a women's section just because he perceives himself as such," he said, presenting it as an issue of prisoner safety.

“This means that if a convicted person is in a men's prison, he will no longer [be allowed to] ask to be transferred to a women's ward, just because they perceive themselves as such,” he said, presenting it as an issue of prisoner safety.

The measure “guarantees the safety of all female prisoners and ends the crazy ideas fomented by sinister gender ideology,” he declared.

In such cases criminals will be lodged in the penitentiary unit corresponding to the gender registered at the time of their arrest, the government explained in a communiqué.

Adorni cited the case of a Córdoba prisoner who, after being transferred to a women’s prison for perceiving himself as one, proceeded to abuse his fellow-inmates. 

"The system became a tool for those convicted for violence against women again committing abhorrent crimes with other women as the victims," he warned.

The President’s Office later issued a communiqué, with Milei detailing his ideological motives for the decision.

"Gender ideology carried to extremes and applied to children by force or psychological coercion constitutes quite simply child abuse," it read. "Children do not have the necessary cognitive maturity to make decisions about irreversible processes which in many cases imply the mutilation of healthy organs."

"In line with the frontal combat against gender extremism, the President will also decree that where prisoners are jailed will be determined by the sex registered at the time of the crime," it maintains.

"Ending child abuse sneaked into the gender agenda and the wiles of criminals are fundamental steps in this direction," concludes the document.
 

Court battle ahead

The announcements, which come a week after US President Donald Trump restricted gender transition procedures for people younger than 19, caused outrage in Argentina's LGBTQ community.

Human rights groups and NGOs indicated they would “resort to the courts” to challenge the move.

“The President cannot modify a law by decree. And if he tries to do so, we will resort to the justice system and the Inter-American Court [of Human Rights] if necessary,” the Federación Argentina LGBT said in a post on social media.

Milei, a fervent admirer of Trump, used a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last month to launch a broadside against what he called the "cancer" of "woke ideology."

He attacked "radical feminism," calling it a way of obtaining "privileges," as well as "gender ideology," a term used by social conservatives opposed to gender inclusivity. 

Tacitly linking so-called “gender ideology” with paedophilia, Milei recently announced that he intends to remove femicide as an aggravating factor in the sentencing and charging of crimes.

The announcements come just four days after a large pro-LGBT+ march in Buenos Aires and a dozen other cities nationwide to protest the rolling back of rights and Milei’s remarks at Davos.

Milei has also followed Trump's lead on other policy issues.

On Wednesday, Argentina announced that it would follow the United States out of the World Health Organization, citing similar complaints to those voiced by Trump over the UN body's management of the Covid-19 pandemic.

About Argentina’s Gender Identity Law

Law 26,743 on Gender Identity was approved by Congress in 2012 with an ample majority. The norm recognises trans identities, permitting the change to be registered in DNI identification documents via a simple administrative procedure without need to accredit medical examinations, surgery or hormone treatment.

The norm also establishes the right of access to "integral health," authorising and guaranteeing trans people via that precept surgery and hormone treatment to adjust their bodies without need for judicial or administrative authorisation in the case of adults.

For those aged under 18, the law indicates that the change must be  registered via their "legal representatives and with the express approval of the minor, taking into account the principles of the progressive capacity and superior interest of the child in accordance with what is stipulated in the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child.

It further establishes that if the parents or whoever is in charge denies authorisation, access to the courts is allowed to resolve the issue. These same principles apply to hormone treatment and surgery for minors.

– TIMES/AFP/PERFIL