( Spanish) – A provincial leader of Argentina’s ruling party published an entry on his Instagram account against the LGBTQ community and adds a new chapter to homophobic attacks by officials of Javier Milei’s administration.
The president of La Libertad Avanza in Santa Cruz, Jairo Henoch Guzmán, also head of the National Institute of Social Services for Retirees and Pensioners (known as PAMI) in that province, published a photo of a rainbow flag, an icon of the community, catching fire with the legend: “In Argentina, only the light blue and white” (in reference to the colors of the country’s flag).
Later, in a journalistic interview, the public official justified his publication and said that it is a personal opinion and that, although he respects the choice of others, he is against “policies and ideologies being promoted that attack against national identity.”
After receiving a great deal of rejection on social media, including on his own accounts, he deleted the flag’s publication. But hours later, he again published homophobic content, declaring himself “anti-gender ideology,” among other publications that promote hate speech.
Activist and journalist Franco Torchia described Guzmán’s words as “unacceptable” and stressed that “he becomes part of the incandescent power plant of his political force.” “The plan is sexual cleansing,” he said in X.
And, after almost a year of Government, homophobia is part of the discourse installed in power.
The episode starring Guzmán joins a series of measures and statements that have generated concern among defenders of LGBTQ rights in Argentina. Under the Government of President Javier Milei, multiple voices from the ruling party have questioned the gender and diversity policies implemented in previous years.
The Minister of Justice, Mariano Cúneo Libarona, said it bluntly during a presentation before the Women and Diversity Commission of the Chamber of Deputies: “We reject the diversity of sexual identities that do not align with biology.”
The statements of the minister, who then said he was bringing the voice of the president himself to the venue, contradict the guidelines established by Argentine legislation, for example, in the laws of equal marriage and gender identity, among others.
However, in addition to the constant discriminatory statements, the Government is advancing in what it calls its “cultural battle.”
At the beginning of the mandate, the Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism (Inadi) closed. Furthermore, in the midst of the massive layoffs of state employees, the trans and non-binary population was one of the most affected, failing to meet the minimum quota of 1% for that population in the public administration established by law. Although this percentage was not met in previous governments, it was currently deepened and, according to the Secretary of Gender and Diversity of the State Workers Association (ATE), more than 10% of the population of the community that had been incorporated was laid off
In the last few hours, the presidential spokesperson, Manuel Adorni, warned on his to the people’s own suitability”, so it is expected that the quota law will be directly eliminated.
Despite the controversies, Milei’s Government enters its first year of administration strengthened, driven by favorable economic data and a global positioning that reinforces its leadership.
In recent weeks, the Faro Foundation was inaugurated, a libertarian think tank that aims to act as a fundraising entity and is led by Agustín Laje, one of the thinkers of the current Government, author of the book “The cultural battle.”
Laje, promoter of far-right ideas, considers that “homophobia does not exist” and that it is “a political term that pathologizes anyone who opposes gender ideology.”
President Milei participated in the foundation’s inauguration gala and during his speech he referred to the cultural battle 13 times.
“Left-handed people use noble causes to hide their jobs,” said the president and asked hundreds of attendees, “Who pays for the State party party?” Milei responded to himself: “Those who produce are forced to pay increasingly confiscatory taxes to support a growing number of so-called rights, under increasingly absurd pretexts. A true rights industry.”
For his part, Laje concluded: “We promote free enterprise and the free market, but we will also confront, not only in the economic field, these ideas, but we are also going for the cultural field against the woke agendas.”
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