Argentina's New President Alarms LGBTQ+ Activists With Closure of Diversity Ministry

Javier Milei, the new, far-right president of Argentina, has eliminated the nation’s Women, Gender and Diversity Ministry.

Then-President Alberto Fernández had created the ministry in 2019. Its duties will now be turned over to the Ministry of Human Capital, the Washington Bladereports.

Milei, who has been likened to Donald Trump, “has created a new government structure that has raised concerns, especially among LGBTQ rights activists in the country that has been at the vanguard of expanding rights to sexual and gender minorities,” the Blade notes.

Milei’s action shows he does not consider women’s and LGBTQ+ issues to be high-priority, Congressman Esteban Paulón told the Blade.

“These are extremely relevant issues that are lost when losing institutionality because the state stops allocating resources, stops investing, and above all stops sending a clear message to society that these are relevant issues,” Paulón said. “They are issues that the state has to deal with and society has to commit to modify, and the truth is that if we do not fight against the structure of patriarchy that is so settled in capitalism, we will not be able to fight against so many other inequalities.”

Getting rid of the ministry had been one of Milei’s campaign promises. He also has eliminated the Education, Culture, Labor and Social Development Ministries, slashed government spending, and devalued the country’s currency, the peso. International groups have praised his financial measures as a step toward easing Argentina’s out-of-control inflation. But some observers warned that his policies will create pain for the nation’s people.

The moves “will increase inflation, will reduce income, will reduce activity and employment and it will increase poverty,” Martin Rapetti, an economist at the University of Buenos Aires, told The New York Times.

Milei, who was a well-known economist and commentator before becoming president, has called himself an “anarcho-capitalist” who believes the best government is no government. He also has said his country was becoming socialist because it legalized abortion and same-sex marriage.

Milei was elected November 20 and sworn in this past Sunday.