Through an Emergency Decree, 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 disseminated false and distorted arguments, today DNU 62/2025 was published in the Official Gazette.

The decree issued by the Milei government modifies Article 11 of Law 26743, invoking the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Law 26.061, but overlooking 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, interferes with the rights of transgender people by modifying the Law on the Execution of Sentences Involving Deprivation of Liberty. 

The Argentine Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, and Transgender People (FALGBT) announced it will take legal action to halt the amendment to the Gender Identity Law, appealing to any necessary international organizations. Legal experts say the courts and the Supreme Court must intervene. 

From the youth collective El Teje, Juana, a young non-binary trans woman, 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 the verification of travel permits for children traveling abroad? What are they trying to tell us? They want to steal our future. They can 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, with a text that prohibits treatments for minors. One of its paragraphs states verbatim: “ 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 genitals, 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 provide proof of consent for total or partial genital reassignment surgery. In both cases, only the person's informed consent will be required.

Providers within the public health system, whether state-run, private, or part of the social security system, must guarantee the rights recognized by this law on an ongoing basis. All health services covered in this article are included in the Mandatory Medical Plan, or any plan that replaces it, as regulated by the implementing authority.

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

What did Article 11 of the LIG, sanctioned in 2012, say that this decree seeks to modify? 

“In the case of minors, the principles and requirements established in Article 5 for obtaining informed consent shall apply. Notwithstanding the foregoing, in the case of obtaining informed consent for total or partial surgical intervention, the approval of the competent judicial authority of each jurisdiction shall also be required. This authority shall ensure compliance with the principles of evolving capacities and the best interests of the child, in accordance with 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 shall issue its decision within a period not exceeding sixty (60) days from the date of the request for approval.”.

The Argentine Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transsexuals, and Bisexuals (FALGBT) clarified the government's deception. "First of all, the announcement that gender-affirming surgeries will be prohibited for minors under 18 is misleading, since 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 spread misinformation and generate stigma," they stated . However, they admit that one of the dangers of the decree is the decision—which is indeed 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 transgender 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 transgender people. This decision not only attacks acquired rights but also puts the lives of those who need these treatments at risk,” FALGBT reported.

“There are cases of adolescents over 14 years old who are undergoing hormone-blocking treatment to, precisely, block the hormonal secretion that determines the masculinization or feminization of the body until the person decides what to do, and if they decide to take hormones, the chemical blockers are withdrawn,” explains Marisa Herrera, PhD in Law . She also wonders what happens to those adolescents in the midst of their identity formation process.

Milei's measure not only fails to protect them: “This illegal decree aims to violate the rights of adolescents at a very complex time in their personal lives, precisely when they most need support. Regarding the surgical intervention, Article 11 of the Gender Identity Law itself states that it requires judicial authorization, therefore, the protection of their rights was guaranteed,” Herrera explains. 

And remember that there were rulings that went against the law, "understanding that ordering judicial intervention violated the principle of progressive autonomy of adolescents, especially those between 16 and 18 years old, by applying the last part of Article 26 of the Civil and Commercial Code, which states that these adolescents are considered adults for the exercise of rights or acts related to the care of their own bodies." Therefore, Article 11 of the Gender Identity Law itself had been criticized in this regard. 

Herrera asserts that the decree not only has severe problems of formal legitimacy , but also " shows an absolute lack of knowledge about, primarily, trans adolescents; not about children because they neither undergo hormonal therapies nor, much less, surgical operations .

“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, the unconstitutionality of a norm does not have general effects in Argentine law, that is, it only has effects for the case in which the unconstitutionality is decreed,” 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 null and void because “it does not comply with the requirements established by Article 99.3 of the Argentine Constitution for the issuance of this type of exceptional regulation. Therefore, it is absolutely and irrevocably null and void. Furthermore, it is regressive and disregards 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 their evolving capacities, as well as their status as subjects and not objects (in this case, of state authoritarianism),” he stated in X. 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. Yet another example of a neo-fascist government.”. 

Through Emergency Decree 62/2025, the government of @JMilei has just modified the gender identity law (Law 26.743). This decree does not comply with the requirements established by the Argentine Constitution in Article 99.3 for the issuance of this type of decree…

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

They are asking for the Supreme Court of Justice to intervene

“There is no doubt that this decree will soon be challenged in court. Hopefully, the judiciary will rise to the occasion. If the executive branch dares to regulate openly by decree, it is, deep down, because it knows it is facing a silent judiciary that, through its silence, allows these kinds of atrocities ,” says Marisa Herrera.

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

 When asked by Presentes, Domínguez explained his statements:

“I say this because the cases it has to resolve regarding Decree 70-20-23 (Bases for the Reconstruction of the Argentine Economy, of December 2023) and to establish a clear limit on when it can or cannot be used, are frozen in time. It doesn't resolve them. By omission, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation is endorsing Milei continuing to do everything he does. The cases that came in challenging that decree, including mine, were closed for lack of standing, because we didn't have the legal capacity to challenge that decree.”. 

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 that it should not pathologize or criminalize mental health issues. 

What is known, according to various trans people and research, is that gender identity often begins at an early age. The transition is not the same for everyone. But in many cases, rejection and discrimination lead to mental health problems. 

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

“Here in Corrientes, there haven’t been any hormone treatments for a year,” says Solange Ayala, a trans activist from Corrientes and member of FUNDEGH (Foundation for Human Rights and Gender Equity). “What’s happening is very distressing. The Gender Identity Law came to restore and dignify trans people. This decision to once again deny our existence is deplorable.”. 

Beyond the legal resolution, the news announced yesterday and decreed today underscores an urgent need: the continuity of treatments. And this isn't solely related to age. Various sources have indicated that the Ministry has not repurchased the supplies necessary to guarantee treatments for the trans population in general. Only some provinces have made purchases. 

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“We were trans children”

Solange lived through a trans adolescence, and with the desire to change her body, she clandestinely self-administered hormones. “When you want to be someone you're not, you don't think about the consequences. Knowing that young people today might have to go through the same thing again is very sad. Many of my friends who championed our beautiful Gender Identity Law have died from liquid silicone injections or from illnesses resulting from hormone therapy without medical supervision ,” she tells Presentes.

She 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 IDs that were corrected but not, we were all children at some point and we have always been trans.”

Solange shares that in many towns across the country, “the erosion of rights is felt quite painfully, because public policies don't always reach us. We don't always have the same resources to protect us as in big cities. Here, achieving recognition meant taking our bodies and voices back to the streets, even though laws already existed. The clinics have been around for four years. Imagine, nine years passed before they opened here.”.

What does the prison article change?

In another decree published today, 61/2025, which invites the provinces and the City of Buenos Aires to adhere to it, Milei regulates the housing of transgender people deprived of their liberty. It prohibits those who have legally changed their gender from being housed in women's prisons if they are detained for committing sexual offenses or violence against women. 

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

One of the arguments used to support this is a case from the province of Córdoba, which some media outlets and libertarians used to stigmatize the situation. In late 2016, a person was detained in Bouwer prison for gender-based violence against their ex-partner. In 2018, they legally changed their gender and sex designation and were transferred to Bouwer prison. There, they were charged this time with violence, threats, and sexual abuse against one of their fellow inmates. 

As we explained in another article , because it alludes to the same example he cited in his misleading statements in 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 people who have processed the legal rectification of their sex in women's prisons if they have committed violent crimes against women or if their presence represents a risk to the safety of other inmates.

According to a freedom of information request filed by the Chequeado Data Center , only “two people deprived of their liberty requested a transfer due to a change of identity in federal prisons. In the Buenos Aires prison system, in 99% of cases the change occurred before their arrest. In Santa Fe, there were only three requests in ten years, while in Córdoba there are 28 transgender people detained.” The same report indicates: “Experts point out that transgender people in prison face harsher conditions, with less access to activities, education, and specialized medical care.”

“In reality, the trans population deprived of their liberty is minimal within the prison system . To even discuss this is perverse; we all know that this is a historically vulnerable, excluded, and discriminated-against population,” Josefina Ignacio, commissioner of the National Committee for the Prevention of Torture, told Presentes. She added that there are very few cases of incarcerated individuals requesting a legal gender change while incarcerated.

“It has happened. But the most important thing to keep in mind is the safety of that person and all those deprived of their liberty. If a transfer has taken place and abuse occurs, the State bears responsibility for not having guaranteed that this would not happen. 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 the facts. And on the other hand, there are people who continue to perpetrate violence against women.”. 

In procedural terms, there are no exact 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 would feel safest. There is no designated wing or safe space in prisons for trans 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 people deprived of their liberty. It also points out the need to guarantee the safety of all detainees. It recommends the creation of separate wings for transgender people to prevent both their revictimization and potential conflicts with other incarcerated individuals.

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