Marchers at Pride criticise Milei's 'discriminatory' laws and policies

Saturday’s annual LGBT+ Pride March drew thousands of participants onto the streets of Buenos Aires, with speeches and banners targeting the austerity policies of President Javier Milei’s government that the group says are discriminatory.

Under the slogan "There is no freedom without rights," marchers paraded down the boulevard from the Plaza de Mayo square.

Demonstrators also demanded a “comprehensive trans law and anti-discrimination law.” 

In a festive mood despite their serious message, demonstrators decried budget cuts they said affected HIV treatment and reproductive rights, denounced what they said was a hostile attitude from the government, and demanded passage of a comprehensive anti-discrimination law.

Milei angered the LGBT+ community by dissolving the Women, Gender & Diversity Ministry, as well as the National Institute Against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism (INADI) watchdog in his first year in office.

The La Libertad Avanza leader’s government "repeatedly insults people of diversity without any hesitation," LGBTQ activist Lucas Gutiérrez said shortly before the march began.

In August, Justice Minister Mariano Cúneo Libarona told lawmakers that his government rejected "the diversity of sexual identities that do not align with the biological" – a statement criticised by a wide range of politicians.

The Federación Argentina LGBT rejected the comment, saying the minister's job should be to protect fundamental human rights, "not violate them."

The Frente por la Salud de Personas con VIH, hepatitis y tuberculosis, a group representing people with HIV, hepatitis and tuberculosis, said the government has proposed a 2025 budget, now being debated in Congress, that calls for a 76 percent cut in funding for treatment of those and related diseases.

It said public spending cuts had already resulted in shortages of tests, condoms and medications.

"We exist, we resist, we are and we will be," said Gutiérrez.

– TIMES/AFP