While public attention was focused on the World Cup final and the return of the Argentine National Team, the federal judiciary provisionally suspended DNU 62/2025, with which the government of Javier Milei had prohibited minors under 18 from accessing hormonal treatments and surgical interventions aimed at modifying their bodies according to a "self-perceived" gender identity.
The ruling was issued by Chamber V of the National Court of Appeals in Federal Administrative Litigation, composed of judges Guillermo Fabio Treacy and Pablo Oscar Gallegos Fedriani. The judges granted the appeal filed by the Argentine Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, and Trans (FALGBT+) and revoked the first-instance ruling by Judge Macarena Marra Giménez, who had rejected the precautionary measure.
The ruling has not yet determined whether the decree is constitutional. However, it suspended its effects nationwide until a final ruling exists. In practice, the decision temporarily reinstates the previous regime of the discredited Gender Identity Law, which allows minors access to hormonal treatments and surgical interventions.
The DNU signed by Milei on February 6, 2025, had established an express prohibition for all minors. The government justified the measure in the protection of the best interests of the child, the possible irreversible effects of the interventions, the lack of neurobiological and psychological maturity, and the absence of sufficient certainties regarding the long-term consequences of hormonal treatment.
Despite these arguments, Treacy and Gallegos Fedriani maintained that the Executive Power had not demonstrated sufficient exceptional circumstances to modify a law approved by Congress through a decree. They also considered that the general prohibition affected the principles of progressive capacity, gender identity, health, and non-discrimination.
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The judicial offensive was driven by the Argentine LGBT+ Federation along with socialist deputy Esteban Paulón, a member of the organization's Board of Directors. Both promoted the action against DNU 62/2025, although Judge Macarena Marra Giménez later rejected the individual intervention of the legislator within the case. The Federation continued with the claim and managed to have the Chamber provisionally suspend the decree.
While the national government had set 18 years as the limit to avoid medical decisions with potentially irreversible consequences, two appellate judges at the request of the LGBT lobby temporarily nullified that protection nationwide.
