Through a Decree of Necessity and Urgency, President Javier Milei modified the Gender Identity Law (Law 26743). 

Following the announcements made yesterday by presidential spokesman Adorni, who had anticipated the decision in a press conference where he spread false and distorted arguments, Decree 62/2025 was published today in the Official Gazette.

The Milei government's decree modifies Article 11 of Law 26743, invoking the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Law 26.061, but ignoring the fact that the Gender Identity Law, since its enactment, has been framed within these regulations. Another decree published today in the Official Gazette, 61/2025, targets transgender people by modifying the Law on the Execution of Prison Sentences. 

The Argentine Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, and Transgender People (FALGBT) announced that it will appeal to the courts to stop the amendment to the Gender Identity Law, and to any international organizations where necessary. Legal experts say the courts and the Supreme Court should intervene. 

From the youth collective El Teje, Juana, a young non-binary transvestite, asks: “Why is the attack on trans children, who don't even represent 1% of the total Argentine population? What don't they want us to see? On the same day they announce they're eliminating permit verification for children traveling abroad? What are they trying to tell us? They want to steal our future. They may talk a lot about freedom, but trans children are liberation.”

What does Article 11 of the Gender Identity Law say? 

Decree 62/2025, published in the Official Gazette today, replaces Article 11, which expresses the right to free personal development, and replaces it with a text that prohibits treatment for minors. One of its paragraphs states: " Persons under EIGHTEEN (18) years of age may not access the interventions and treatments referred to in this article .

The decree bears the signatures of Milei, Guillermo Francos, Gerardo Werthein, Luis Petri, Luis Caputo, Mariano Cúneo Libarona, Patricia Bullrich, Mario Lugones and Federico Adolfo Sturzenegger. 

The text of Article 11 as amended: 

ARTICLE 11.- Right to free personal development. All persons over EIGHTEEN (18) years of age may, in accordance with article 1 of this law and in order to guarantee the enjoyment of their comprehensive health, access total and partial surgical interventions and/or comprehensive hormonal treatments to adapt their body, including their genitalia, to their self-perceived gender identity, without the need to require judicial or administrative authorization.

To access comprehensive hormonal treatments, it will not be necessary to prove willingness to undergo total or partial genital reassignment surgery. In both cases, only the informed consent of the individual will be required.

Public health system providers, whether state-run, private, or part of the social security subsystem, must permanently guarantee the rights recognized by this law. All health benefits contemplated in this article are included in the Mandatory Medical Plan, or any plan that replaces it, as regulated by the implementing authority.

Persons under EIGHTEEN (18) years of age may not access the interventions and treatments referred to in this article.

What did Article 11 of the LIG passed in 2012 say that this decree seeks to amend? 

“In the case of minors, the principles and requirements established in Article 5 shall apply for obtaining informed consent. Notwithstanding this, in the case of obtaining such consent with respect to total or partial surgical intervention, the consent of the competent judicial authority of each jurisdiction must also be obtained, who must ensure the principles of progressive capacity and the best interests of the child in accordance with the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Law 26.061 on the comprehensive protection of the rights of children and adolescents. The judicial authority must issue its decision within a period of no more than sixty (60) days from the date of the request for consent.

The FALGBT (Federal Association of Women and Youth) clarified the deception being propagated by the government. "First, the announcement that gender-affirming surgeries for minors under 18 will be banned is misleading, as the Gender Identity Law in force in Argentina since 2012 already establishes that these procedures can only be performed on adults. This attempt to present a supposed regulatory change is nothing more than a strategy to misinform and generate stigma," they stated . But they admit that one of the dangers of the decree is the decision—which is new—to prohibit treatments for adolescents .

What happens to teenagers? 

"The abrupt suspension of these treatments has serious consequences for physical health, while the inability to access them directly affects the mental health of trans adolescents. Gender-affirming treatments for adolescents have been supported by national and international health organizations, as they guarantee the well-being and comprehensive health of trans people. This decision not only violates acquired rights, but also puts the lives of those who need these treatments at risk," reported FALGBT.

"There are cases of adolescents over 14 years old who are undergoing hormonal blocker treatment, specifically to block the hormonal secretion that determines the masculinization or feminization of the body until the person decides what to do next. If they decide to take hormones, the chemical blockers are discontinued," describes Marisa Herrera, PhD in Law . She also wonders what happens to those adolescents in the midst of their identity process.

MIlei's measure not only fails to protect them: "This illegal decree seeks to violate the rights of adolescents at a very complex stage in their personal lives, which is precisely when they most need support. Regarding surgical intervention, Article 11 of the Gender Identity Law itself states that it must be authorized by a court, so the protection of their rights was guaranteed," Herrera explains. 

And remember that there were rulings that overruled the law, "understanding that requiring judicial intervention violated the principle of progressive autonomy of adolescents, especially those between the ages of 16 and 18, by applying the last section of Article 26 of the Civil and Commercial Code, which stipulates that these adolescents are considered adults for the exercise of rights or acts of personal care." Therefore, Article 11 of the Gender Identity Law itself had been criticized in this regard. 

Herrera asserts that the decree not only has serious problems with formal legitimacy , but also " reveals a complete lack of knowledge about, primarily, trans adolescents; not about children, because they don't undergo hormone therapy, much less surgery .

"Decree 62/2025 violates the basic rules of the legal system. Any first-year law student knows that laws are modified by another law ; moreover, even the unconstitutionality of a law has no general effect in Argentine law; that is, it only has effects in the case in which the unconstitutionality is declared," Herrera explains.

"The decree is null and void; it does not comply with the Constitution."

For Andrés Gil Domínguez, a constitutional lawyer, the decree is void because “it does not meet the requirements set forth by the Argentine Constitution in art. 99.3 for the issuance of this type of exceptional norm. Therefore, it is absolutely and irremediably null and void. Furthermore, it is regressive and ignores the full exercise of the right to gender identity of children and adolescents with respect to accessing total and partial surgical interventions and/or comprehensive hormonal treatments, the best interests of the child and the progressive capacity, as well as the condition of subject and not object (in this case of state authoritarianism) of children and adolescents,” he expressed in X. And he emphasized that “it is perverse to invoke the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Law 26.061 to justify the restriction of progressively guaranteed rights. One more example of a neo-fascist government.” 

With the issuance of Decree of Necessity and Urgency 62/2025, the @JMilei has just amended the gender identity law (Law 26.743). This decree does not meet the requirements set forth in the Argentine Constitution in Article 99.3 for the issuance of this type of certificate…

— Andres Gil Dominguez (@agildominguez) February 6, 2025

They ask the Supreme Court of Justice to intervene

“There is no doubt that this decree will soon be challenged by the courts. Hopefully, the judiciary will rise to the occasion. If the executive branch dares to openly regulate by decree, it is, at its core, because it knows it is dealing with a silent judiciary, and that its silence allows these types of atrocities to happen ,” says Marisa Herrera.

Along the same lines, Andrés Gil Domínguez expressed in his post on X: “This situation of governmental impunity is all yours, Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, it's all yours. The struggle and resistance for rights continues.”

 Consulted by Presentes, Domínguez explained his words:

“I say this because the cases she has to resolve DNU 70-20-23 (Bases for the reconstruction of the Argentine economy, of December 2023) and set a clear limit on when it can or cannot be used, are cryopreserved. She doesn't resolve them. By omission, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation is endorsing Milei to continue doing everything she does. The cases that came up challenging that decree, including mine, challenging that decree, were closed due to lack of standing, that we didn't have the legal standing to challenge it.” 

The government decree is not based on scientific evidence. It cites a dubious mental health report, when the Gender Identity Law, in its spirit, proclaims not to pathologize or prosecute. 

What is known, as reported by various trans people and research, is that gender identity often begins at an early age. It doesn't happen the same way for everyone. But in many cases, rejection and discrimination lead to mental health issues. 

The Convention on the Rights of Girls, Boys, and Adolescents speaks of progressive autonomy, considering all as subjects of rights. The same applies to mental health and reproductive rights. 

“Here in Corrientes, there have been no hormone treatments for a year,” says Solange Ayala, a trans activist from Corrientes and a member of FUNDEGH (Human Rights and Gender Equity Foundation). “What's happening is very distressing. The Gender Identity Law was created to restore and dignify trans people. This decision to once again deny our existence is regrettable.” 

Beyond what is resolved legally, the news announced yesterday and decreed today highlights an urgent need: the continuity of treatment. And this is not only related to age. Various sources have reported that the ministry has not purchased new supplies to guarantee treatment for the trans population in general. Only a few provinces have made purchases. 

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“We were trans children”

Solange lived a trans adolescence, and with the desire to change her body, she secretly self-administered hormones. “When you want to be trans, you don't think about the consequences. Knowing that today's youth may have to go through the same thing again is very sad. Many of my peers who lent their bodies to our beautiful Gender Identity Law have died from liquid silicone, or from illnesses resulting from hormone therapy without medical supervision ,” she tells Presentes.

He adds: “There is no “ideology.” We have always been here. It's just that before 2012, there was nothing to protect us. Of those more than 20,000 ID cards that were rectified and didn't, we were once children and we have always been trans.”

Solange shares that in many parts of the country, "the repeal of rights is felt quite painfully, because public policies aren't always forthcoming. We're not always protected by the same resources as in larger cities. Here, achieving recognition meant putting our bodies and voices back on the streets, even though there were laws and everything. The clinics have been around for four years. Imagine it took nine years for them to open here."

What the prison article modifies

In another decree published today, 61/2025, inviting the provinces and the City of Buenos Aires to join, Milei regulates the housing of transgender people deprived of their liberty. It prohibits those who have undergone a registry change from staying in women's wards if they are detained for committing sexual offenses or committing violence against women. 

The DNU states: “The prison administration will assign, within its jurisdiction, the place of accommodation, relocation, or transfer of the person deprived of liberty based on the person's sex, in accordance with Law No. 26,743, at the time of the event for which their detention was ordered.” 

One of the arguments she uses to establish this is a case from the province of Córdoba, which some media outlets and libertarians used to stigmatize. At the end of 2016, a woman was detained in Bouwer for gender-based violence against her ex-partner. In 2018, she changed her gender and sex on the registry and was transferred to Bouwer prison. There, she was charged, this time with violence, threats, and sexual abuse of one of her fellow detainees. 

As we explained in another article , because he alludes to the same example he cited in his misleading statements at Davos, Milei relies on 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 for the whole to generalize. In this case, to criminalize a vulnerable minority.

The new regulations prohibit housing inmates who have undergone gender correction in women's prisons if they have committed violent crimes against women or if their presence poses a risk to the safety of other inmates.

According to a freedom of information request made by the Chequeado Data Center , only “two people deprived of liberty requested a transfer due to a change of identity in federal prisons. In the Buenos Aires prison system, in 99% of cases the transfer occurred before being detained. In Santa Fe, there were only three requests in 10 years, while in Córdoba, there are 28 trans people detained.” The same article states: “Specialists point out that trans people in prison face more onerous conditions, with less access to activities, education, and specific medical care.”

“In reality, the transgender population deprived of liberty is minimal in the prison system . Even talking about this is perverse; we all know it's a historically vulnerable, excluded, and discriminated population,” Josefina Ignacio, commissioner of the National Committee for the Prevention of Torture, told Presentes. She added that there are very few cases of people deprived of liberty requesting a change in their registration while in prison.

“It has happened. But the most important thing to consider is the safety of that person and of all those deprived of their liberty. If a transfer has taken place and abuse occurs, the State is responsible for not having guaranteed that this does not occur. The primary responsibility lies with the State,” she emphasizes. “Personally, I believe that unfortunately there are people, men, who use these noble tools to continue exercising their machismo. On the one hand, the government lies, exaggerates, and distorts. And on the other, there are people who continue to perpetrate violence against women.” 

In procedural terms, there are no exact rules regarding where LGBTI+ people, and particularly transvestite and transgender people, should be housed. The Yogyakarta Principles tell us that detainees should be asked where they would feel safest. There is no specific wing or safe place in prisons for transgender people.

Advisory Opinion 29/22 of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights establishes that States must adopt specific measures for the protection of transgender persons deprived of liberty. It also points out the need to guarantee the safety of all detainees. It recommends the creation of exclusive wards for transgender persons, in order to avoid both their re-victimization and potential conflicts with other persons deprived of liberty.

Gender identity is a right; it cannot be prohibited by amending a law that is a democratic achievement. The government persists in a logic of confrontation and lies toward one of the most vulnerable groups, enabling further attacks.