“Our lives are at risk. Enough. We’re never going back into the closet.” The LGBTQIA+ Anti-fascist Assembly put out that call in response to President Javier Milei’s anti-LGBTQIA+ rhetoric in Davos on Thursday. On Saturday, the community turned out across the country. 

In Buenos Aires City, thousands spilled into the auditorium in Parque Lezama for the open assembly, multicolored flags and fans waving in the summer heat. As organizers read their opening statement, floating the idea of a protest in late February, a chant erupted: “To the streets! Let’s march now!”

That chant was repeated throughout the afternoon, and an anti-fascist, anti-racist pride march was decided, by popular vote, for Saturday, February 1. Organizers told the Herald they estimated 8,000 people attended.

“We don’t owe any ministry anything. We have to stop begging straight people and influencers to stand by our flag and publish press releases. We have a power that goes beyond social media and follower numbers. Stop being so bourgeois and hit the streets,” said Georgina Orellano, head of the AMMAR sex workers’ union. 

“There are so many maricas, lesbians, bisexuals, prostitutes, and travestis sleeping in the streets. We must embrace them, ask their forgiveness, and rebuild popular unity. Not to get rid of Milei but so the next government has our demands on their agenda. But not as a little flag or an LGBT office. We don’t want crumbs, we want everything that we’re owed.”

Unlike their direct English translations, marica and travesti in Argentina are gender identities with deep political roots worn with pride.

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Milei spoke of “gender ideology” in his speech on Thursday, what the Trans Journalists Association deems a charged term used by anti-trans commentators to imply that trans people are imposing an agenda by their mere existence. The president went further, claiming that it constitutes “child abuse.” Many at the assembly referred to hate speech propagated by the administration in general and touched on last year’s brutal triple lesbicide as proof of its dangerous consequences.

A La Libertad Avanza micro-influencer was chased away from the assembly for trying to get a rise out of attendees and filming the interactions. Although organizers urged people not to respond to provocations, a contingent followed him to the adjoining street. Some hit City police patrol cars that drove him away. Witnesses to the initial altercation told the Herald that the vehicles also took away two men who had been flanking him.

“I am a survivor of child sexual abuse. And I wasn’t raped by someone from the community. A heterosexual raped me. The people of this community gave me refuge, supported me, gave me love and security and confidence,” Nathan Lobo told the assembly in response to Milei’s claim that “gender ideology” is child abuse. “It’s my first time saying this, and I’m not scared. I will never be scared again!”

Lobo beamed and held up a sign that read, “We’re not scared of Milei. We have [Integral Sex Education], real information, and memory. ‘Our power is in our stories.’” They told the Herald the harmful accusation of pedophilia often directed towards the LGBTQIA+ community was “deeply hypocritical” given that perpetrators are usually straight men who target queer children in their families.

“I’m trembling. But I feel amazing. I felt so much strength up there, so much energy, and I felt like I drew that courage from everyone around me. It’s the strength we need to give each other,” they said. 

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Cover photo by Valen Iricibar