Argentine President Javier Milei participated in the Davos Economic Forum and in his speech targeted LGBTQ+ people. His words were riddled with misinformation, lies, fallacies, and manipulation. Milei echoed tactics used by anti-rights and far-right lobbying groups worldwide. 

 In this article we refute Milei's statements one by one using arguments from social sciences and verified data. 

1-It is false that a man disguises himself as a woman and kills a woman in a ring

“The LGBT+ agenda is being promoted by trying to impose on us that women are men and men are women only if they perceive themselves that way, and they say nothing about when a man dresses up as a woman and kills his rival in a boxing ring.”

What the president is saying goes against Gender Identity Law 26.743 . Article 2 states: “Gender identity is understood as the internal and individual experience of gender as each person feels it, which may or may not correspond to the sex assigned at birth, including the personal experience of one's body. This may involve the modification of bodily appearance or function through pharmacological, surgical, or other means, provided that this is freely chosen. It also includes other expressions of gender, such as clothing, manner of speaking, and mannerisms.” It is the law of the country he presides over; he should know it and respect it.

We don't know which "boxer" the president is referring to. Is he talking about the boxer Imane Khelif ? We should remember that the Algerian boxer was the target of attacks and disinformation when it was claimed that she was a trans person competing against women. And even though she declared herself a cis woman, she continued to be unjustly attacked.

Does this refer to all trans people in sports? There is no scientific evidence showing an athletic advantage for trans women. A report published in 2021 revealed that trans women have no biomedical advantage in elite sports . It clarifies that social factors such as nutrition and training quality are what affect their performance. But this information is ignored by anti-rights groups.

2- It is false that trans women are a danger to cis women in prisons

“Or when a prisoner claims to be a woman and ends up raping every woman he comes across in prison,” the president continued in his speech. 

Milei doesn't provide details, but we infer that he's alluding to a case in Córdoba that the media and the libertarian political establishment used to stigmatize the individual. It involves a person who was arrested in late 2016 in Bouwer prison for gender-based violence against their former partner. In 2018, they legally changed their gender and sex designation, which led to their transfer to the women's section of Bouwer prison. There, they were again charged with violence, threats, and sexual abuse against one of their fellow inmates. 

Milei uses a single case to criminalize an entire population. He employs the fallacy of composition, a type of argumentative manipulation in which a part is taken to represent the whole in order to generalize, in this case, to stigmatize an entire population group. 

In procedural terms, there are no clear rules on where LGBTI+ people, and in particular transvestite and trans people, should be housed. The Yogyakarta Principles state that detainees should be asked where they believe they would feel safest. But there is a vast gap between theory and practice . With overcrowding, overpopulation, and cruelty in prisons, this cannot be implemented. There is no designated wing or safe space in prisons for trans people.

The situation of trans people in prisons

Moreover, we know of more cases of trans people being abused while incarcerated than the other way around . And these cases are reported, but justice rarely takes action in these situations.

“The idea of ​​vulnerable groups and their instrumentalization to obtain rights is not new either. They get pregnant because of a program, they have children because of house arrest, because of the ‘benefits,’ and now they ‘become trans’ to change their prison cell,” says lawyer César Bisutti.

Both the federal and provincial prison systems have established LGBTQ+ wings. Generally, transgender women are housed in men's prisons. These LGBTQ+ wings are often shared with cisgender men convicted of sexual offenses.

Until 2015, for example, the LGBTQ+ pavilion at Sierra Chica prison in Olavarría was called the "pavilion for passive homosexuals and those convicted of crimes against sexual integrity." The first provincial decree regulating the housing arrangements in Buenos Aires province prisons referred to specific areas for "homosexuals and perverts." The assimilation of homosexuality and sexual aggression as deviant behaviors is long-standing and finds a specific form of accommodation in incarceration. 

3- It is false that there is a “gender ideology”

Gender ideology is a term that is used in a negative and derogatory way to cancel or dismiss the sexual and gender diversity that societies, cultures and nations have been opening up to.

By calling it an ideology, we are referring to the dogmatic character presupposed regarding the ideas of equality, empowerment, and respect for the personal experience of identity and sexuality. Feminist and diversity movements are rejected on the grounds that they go against nature and the family and that they operate in a way that endangers the established social order.

The term “gender ideology” emerged in 1995 as a discursive strategy of the Vatican during the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing.

The Pontifical Council for the Family stated that “gender ideology was part of “feminist ideologies”, which stem from the “loss of faith in the world”.

It was in 2016 that Pope Francis popularized the concept by declaring that gender ideology is an "ideological colonization" that "goes against natural things."

This narrative has been spread by different churches and anti-rights groups to oppose comprehensive sex education and the gender perspective .

4-It is false that people of diverse sexual orientations are pedophiles 

At another point in his speech, the president alluded to the news that circulated in December about a gay couple from the state of Georgia, United States, sentenced to 100 years in prison for abusing their adopted children. “When I say abuse, it’s not a euphemism because in its most extreme versions, gender ideology is simply child abuse; they are pedophiles. Therefore, I want to know who condones this behavior,” the president said. 

In this way, Milei used the fallacy of composition as a rhetorical device in his speech; that is, a type of argumentative manipulation in which a part is taken for the whole to generalize about a population group. “He uses this technique of applying what happens in individual situations and generalizing them, which doesn't apply to the needs and demands of society. Milei talks about a gay couple who adopt children, and it turns out they are a couple who practice pedophilia, which is a crime. It's deceptive because there are many gay couples—men, women, or trans people—where adoptions go very well and good families are formed,” stated Hernán De Arriba, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in charge of the inpatient service at Borda Hospital and a member of the organization 100% Diversity and Rights.

In figures

Worldwide, one in five women and one in seven men report having suffered sexual abuse in their childhood. Data collected by the United Nations is alarming enough to be considered a public health problem. Furthermore, they warn of the need to address the issue seriously and with reliable information.  

The perpetrators of these abuses are, in the vast majority of cases, members of the victim's own family. In Argentina, according to a report prepared by UNICEF and the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights , between October 2020 and September 2021, 3,219 children and adolescents were victims of sexual violence. Their abusers were family members in 56.5% of cases, and the abuse occurred in the home in 36.2% of cases.

Regarding the profile of perpetrators, UNICEF, in its report “Sexual Abuse Against Children and Adolescents: A Guide to Taking Action and Protecting Their Rights ” (2018), describes: “There is no way to know, based on personality type or social behavior, whether or not a person is a sexual abuser of children and adolescents. They can be successful people, doctors, psychologists, lawyers, teachers, religious and youth leaders such as student guides on graduation trips or sports coaches. Sexual abusers circulate discreetly within the family and social environment. Statistics indicate that the majority of abusers are socially well-adjusted heterosexual males .”

The importance of CSE

To prevent child abuse, specialists emphasize the need for comprehensive sex education. “Comprehensive sex education doesn't imply too much or too little information, but rather the right amount. Educational psychologists and other professionals in the field of pedagogy work to ensure that the information is appropriate for each stage of life a person is going through, depending on the age of the child, adolescent, or adult. It involves understanding one's own body, emotions, affection, and self-care. It's essential that people who are victims of this type of behavior can recognize that it's wrong and speak out,” De Arriba stated. 

In this regard, the Public Guardian's Office of the City of Buenos Aires discovered that between 70 and 80% of children and adolescents interviewed by the agency understood that they were abused after receiving ESI classes.

5- It is false that trans childhoods are mutilated with hormones

“They are irreversibly damaging healthy children through hormonal treatments and mutilations, as if a child under five could consent to such a thing. And if their family disagrees, there will always be state agents ready to intervene in what they call the child's best interests. Believe me, the scandalous experiments being carried out today in the name of this criminal ideology will be condemned and compared to those that occurred during the darkest periods of our history. And covering up this multitude of abject practices is the eternal victimhood narrative, always ready to fire off accusations of homophobia or transphobia, or other fabrications whose sole purpose is to try to silence those who denounce this scandal in which national and international authorities are complicit.”

Globally, no gender identity law that guarantees this right to trans children seeks to "mutilate", "hormone" or "operate" on trans girls, boys and children. 

According to the ILGA World database , at the regional level, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile have guidelines, laws, or precedents that guarantee the recognition of gender identity for minors. In some cases, this is guaranteed administratively, in others through the courts. And in no case is medical or surgical accreditation or hormonal treatment required.

Advisory Opinion 24/17 of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ( IACHR ) maintains that the recognition of gender identity of trans people, minors and adults, must be guaranteed without them having to prove medical or surgical interventions, hormonal treatments or other procedures.

The evidence

Adrián Helien is a doctor and head of transgender health at Durand Hospital. He leads the pioneering team in Argentina that provides care to families with transgender children. “In this country, rights for transgender children and adolescents do exist. These groups pathologize trans identities, drawing attention in a catastrophic and negative way to the support provided to children and adolescents, but there are no trans voices. There are people who oppose trans rights,” he explains. 

Helien asserts that, based on her experience in her practice, the catastrophic consequences predicted by these anti-gender movements are not what they seem. “These people are probably the political vanguard of anti-rights legislation worldwide. They have no interest whatsoever in the health of trans people or in respecting identities. We know that in the United States, many people today have to move to another state to receive treatment, or that professionals who provide trans healthcare have their licenses revoked,” she explains, drawing on her experience with the World Association of Trans Health Professionals. 

“Those of us who work with trans people in multidisciplinary teams have the evidence, based on their treatment,” says Helien. The Trans Health Care Service was created at Durand Hospital in 2005. “The evidence shows that transitions can occur at different stages of life; there are no rules. They can happen in childhood, puberty, adolescence, or later ages.” She is referring to one of the arguments of these groups, who promote a narrative that maintains that, for them, the “true” transition should occur earlier. “This position pathologizes trans identities and attempts to define boundaries with empty rhetoric. They speak without evidence, creating false narratives.”.

6- It is false that “wokism” is the opposite of freedom 

“Slowly, what seemed like an absolute global hegemony of the woke left in politics, educational institutions, the media, supranational organizations, or forums like Davos has been cracking, and a glimmer of hope for the ideas of freedom is beginning to emerge.”

The term 'Woke' comes from English and means: awake. It was originally used in the United States during the 1960s in the context of the Black civil rights movement. It referred to the idea of ​​being "awake" or "aware" of injustices; it speaks of opening one's eyes, seeing everything, and not letting anything go unnoticed.

The term has broadened and for some time now has incorporated more struggles related to human rights, from LGBT+ rights, women's rights, people with disabilities, etc. It is in this context that conservatives have turned it into their nemesis and called themselves "anti-Woke.".

Milei's speech in Davos, which is in tune with Trump's inauguration speech and aligns with the statements and policies of mega-millionaires like Musk and Zuckerberg, constructs the idea of ​​"wokism" as a censorious enemy that restricts freedoms in order to somehow justify its attack on the human rights of the most vulnerable populations who do not agree with its authoritarian regimes.

On Wednesday, January 22, Milei posted on the X network: “Not only are we not afraid of them, but we will hunt them down in every corner of the planet in defense of freedom. Leftist sons of bitches, tremble.”.