Total condemnation of the violent attack against trans women and transvestites in the Palermo Woods, Argentina
The CLACSO Working Group on Sexual Activisms and Citizenships: Interdisciplinary Dialogues emphatically condemns the acts of violence perpetrated against trans women and transvestites in the Palermo Woods, in Argentina, and expresses its solidarity with the affected women.
The incident occurred in the early hours of Sunday, November 1st, when a large group of young people perpetrated brutal violence against sex workers in the area, harassing them, chasing them with sticks, and threatening them. In addition to the physical assault, the attackers filmed the attack and shared the videos on social media, accompanied by messages of mockery and humiliation. The violence did not end with the physical blows; it continued with its digital exposure, turning the suffering of these women into an object of public ridicule. Their bodies were assaulted and then turned into a spectacle for others to see.
The violence didn't begin that morning: it's part of a growing trend of legitimizing hate speech against the LGBTIQA+ community, promoted by Javier Milei's government. When those in power delegitimize gender identities, question hard-won rights, and portray sexual and gender diversity as a threat, they not only enable certain forms of violence, but also weaken the social boundaries that prevent it.
In this sense, the attacks against trans and gender-diverse women express the persistence of a social order that has historically excluded them from spaces of recognition, protection, and citizenship. This web of exclusion has limited their ability to inhabit the city, often transforming public space into a territory of threat.
These events painfully remind us of a history of persecution that is not new and that never truly disappeared. It evokes both the harassment and police violence perpetrated under the Police Edicts, as well as civil persecution and episodes of extreme violence, including the wave of hate crimes against sex workers in the Pan-American Highway area during the late 80s.
Threats, surveillance, and violence, both institutional and civil, have marked the lives of transvestites and trans people for decades.
In this context, there is no freedom when the existence of others becomes an object of persecution. There is no full citizenship when some people can inhabit public spaces without fear and others must do so under the constant threat of violence. Just days before another Pride March in Buenos Aires, we reaffirm that pride is not only celebration: it is also memory, struggle, and resistance.
We join in the demand for justice in the face of these events and the rise of hate speech, and we reaffirm our commitment, as social researchers and activists, to the defense of human rights and LGBTIQA+ citizenship.
No life should pay with fear for the right to exist.
November 4th 2026
CLACSO Working Group on Sexual Activisms and Citizenships: Interdisciplinary Dialogues
This text expresses the position of the aforementioned Working Group and not necessarily that of the centers and institutions that make up the CLACSO international network, its Steering Committee or its Executive Secretariat.
