With activists vowing to take to the streets, President Javier Milei’s government this week attempted to tone down an angry backlash to the head of state’s latest tirade against feminism, LGBT+ rights and “gender ideology.”
Facing an imminent mass mobilisation of the LGBT+ movement and wider society this Saturday, Milei administration officials sought to cool criticism of the president.
They insisted that he had been misinterpreted while delivering an address to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, late last month that seemed to imply a link between so-called “gender ideology,” homosexuality and paedophilia.
“The President did not question feminism as the defence of women. What we are against is that behind feminism there is a business for a few [people] and that women are not defended in the end,” claimed Presidential Spokesperson Manuel Adorni at a press conference.
He continued: “The President defends the choice of each human being to the letter and whoever does not agree with respecting the choice of each one, in any form, without curtailing the right of another, has to leave the government, because we respect freedom to the letter.”
While Adorni spoke, Milei was posting on social media, implying that his words had been deliberately misinterpreted by “lefties.”
During his speech in Davos, Milei told the world’s business and political elite that the world must “‘eliminate the virus of the woke ideology,” which he described as a “cancer that must be extirpated.”
He also questioned abortion, feminism, gender equality, environmentalism and immigration, claiming that they are “tools to justify the advance of the state.”
Most controversially, he implied a link between so-called extreme “woke” policies and paedophilia.
“What a task they have set themselves with these abortion aberrations. From these forums they promote the LGBT agenda, wanting to impose on us that women are men and men are women only if that is how they perceive themselves. And they say nothing about when a man disguises himself as a woman and kills his rival in a boxing ring or when a prisoner claims to be a woman and ends up raping any woman who crosses his path in prison,” said MIlei in his speech.
“Without going any further, a few weeks ago, the case of two homosexual Americans who, flying the flag of sexual diversity, were sentenced to 100 years in prison for abusing and filming their adopted children for more than two years, made headlines around the world.
“I want to be clear that when I say abuse it is not a euphemism, because in its most extreme versions gender ideology constitutes outright child abuse. They are paedophiles, so I want to know who endorses these behaviours,” the head of state told an audience of the world’s business and political elite.
Among others, sociologist Sol Prieto, a researcher at the CONICET scientific research institute, came out against the president, refuting his claims.
According to data from the Ministerio Público Tutelar (MPT), she said in a post on social media, “80 percent of child abuse is intrafamilial,” she said in a post on the social network X. “More than 99% of families with children are heterosexual.”
The data comes from a report prepared by the MPT which indicates that this number of cases of mistreatment and abuse of children and adolescents (NNyA) in intrafamilial contexts or areas of proximity.
‘Insulting and defaming’
Human rights groups, NGOs, politicians and LGBT+ activists reacted angrily to the speech, staging an impromptu demonstration at Parque Lezama, at which a larger mobilisation for this Saturday – a ‘Federal Pride March’ – was agreed.
“Whoever believes that they can contribute to their freedoms is fine to make a march, but be careful when that forces them to pay someone else because there we enter into a conflict of interests and we have to respect all parties,” said Adorni.
“What we will not allow is that behind the defence of a genuine cause, such as a women's group or an LGBT group, there is a business,” he declared.
Nevertheless, a host of politicians and public figures came out to denounce the president’s remarks.
Former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner said Milei's comments showed the ridiculousness of the libertarian project.
In an open letter to Milei published on social media, the ex-president accused the head of state of having “dedicated” himself “to insulting, attacking and defaming women and homosexuals.”
“Don't you think that we Argentines already have too many divisions to add differences based on gender or sexual choice?” she added.
For former Coalición Cívica leader and national deputy Elisa ‘Lilita’ Carrió, Milei’s speech “violates” Argentina’s Constitution.
“His speeches, his publications on social networks and any comments in the media are not made in a personal capacity but in his capacity as Argentine Head of State and, consequently, his expressions must be respectful of the National Constitution, human rights treaties and laws, in short, the rule of law,” said Carrió.
“The speech made at Davos requires me to express my absolute rejection and deep concern,” she added.
The cross-party Club Político Argentino (“Argentine Political Club”) also condemned the remarks in a communiqué.
“The Argentine Political Club expresses its deep concern about the statements made by President Milei at the World Economic Forum meeting,” read the text.
The organisation observed that Argentine democracy ‘has built – with effort and the majority participation of the different political spaces – a set of laws and rights, within the framework of the National Constitution and international treaties, which have achieved general consensus in society and are perhaps one of the few achievements in the face of so many economic failures.”
Milei’s “inflammatory speech, attacking and stigmatising various minorities, before a bewildered audience summoned to listen to proposals to seduce investors, does not contribute to this. On the contrary: such an attack full of prejudices and falsehoods goes against the objective of stabilising our economy,” it continued.
For the Club Argentino Político, Milei's speech constructs an image that “resumes the search for scapegoats, which has been part of dark times in our history.”
– TIMES/PERFIL/NA
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