On February 5, Argentina's presidential office announced that President Javier Milei had decided to prohibit gender change treatments and surgeries for minors, as well as impose restrictions on housing trans women in women's prisons.
During a press conference, presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni stated that the ban would encompass hormone therapy, citing similar developments in legislation concerning trans rights in the UK, Sweden, Finland, and the United States, emphasizing the protection of children's mental health.
The decision sparked protests in support of LGBT+ rights following Milei's remarks in Davos, Switzerland, where he criticized "feminism, diversity, inclusion, abortion, environmentalism, and gender ideology," referring to progressive policies as a "cancer that must be extirpated."
The Argentina LGBT+ Federation highlighted legal constraints, noting that current laws do not permit gender surgery for minors.
The presidential office affirmed, "Gender ideology pushed onto children through coercion constitutes child abuse," while emphasizing the need for medical evaluation and diagnosis of gender dysphoria before undergoing gender surgeries or treatments for trans minors globally.
Additionally, Milei's far-right libertarian administration plans to assign prisoners based on their gender recorded at the time of the crime, ensuring no trans woman convicted of sexual, human trafficking, or violent crimes against women will be housed in women's prisons.
Presidential spokesperson Adorni asserted, "This decision seeks a more secure environment for all female inmates, rejecting extremist gender ideology."
The statement did not reveal the number of trans women in women's prisons or their criminal convictions, nor did it address the impact on intersex individuals with non-binary biological characteristics.
Notably, the announcement coincided with a U.S. judge's ruling signed by former President Donald Trump directing the transfer of 16 trans women from women's to men's prisons, discontinuing gender-affirming care, as most trans women in the U.S. are imprisoned in men's facilities.