Report: Milei government plans to eliminate non-binary DNIs

President Javier Milei is planning to issue a decree reportedly seeking to eliminate recognition of non-binary identity in Argentine national identity documents, according to reports.

The decree, aligned with the ongoing “cultural battle” launched by Milei’s administration during its first year in office, will eliminate the option non-binary from official documentation, preventing those who do not identify as exclusively a man or a woman from being represented as such.

According to the latest available data, there are 8,293 persons in Argentina who perceive themselves as non-binary, of which some 1,600 have requested a change of document.

The government intends to repeal Decree 476/2021, which for the last three years has permitted non-binary persons to register their gender in their DNI (Documento Nacional de Identidad) and other documents as "X," reported left-wing newspapers Tiempo Argentino and Pagina/12. 

The non-binary DNI is a right consecrated in the Gender Identity Law No. 26.743, approved in May 2012 and implemented since 2021 during the Alberto Fernández Presidency. 

This measure, which could become official in the next few days according to Casa Rosada sources, would imply the elimination of the non-binary option in official documentation. It will likely result in a wave of lawsuits.

The move is the latest in a series of measures that critics describe as a clampdown on so-called “progressive” issues.

Since taking office last December, Milei – a social conservative – has also prohibited the use of inclusive language in the government, eliminated the former Women, Gender & Diversity Ministry, shuttered the INADI anti-discrimination watchdog and withdrawn financing from reproductive health programmes, positioning Argentina as an increasingly restrictive country in terms of human rights.

Earlier this week,  President Milei ratified his government’s security policies, announcing the prohibition of the transfer of convicts for reasons of gender after it emerged that the leader of the Los Monos drug gang, Guillermo Cantero, had presented 10 habeas corpus writs in which he said that he perceived himself as a woman.

“Only a country whose values have been twisted can permit such madness. We’re going to prohibit it, criminals will not be able to request a change of prison under the umbrella of the gender equality law,” asserted Milei at the Casa Rosada on Tuesday.

– TIMES/NA/PERFIL