Rights for the “Non-Conforming” Woman: The Intersectionality of the Fight for Women’s Rights and LGBTQ+ Rights in Argentina

Argentina has faced many challenges throughout its history of activism as the people have pushed for an equal society. Different movements have sprung up over the years, but they have begun to twist together in recent times due to the need for support during repressive regimes. This brings into question the concept of intersectionality, which spans feminist, queer, and legal theory in its attempt to explain the need for overlap, modeling the natural development of personal identities and groups like family. The feminist movement and the LGBTQ+ movements have woven together in many rallies, especially during El Encuentro Nacional de Mujeres. In the feminist movement’s focus on reproductive rights, they have left out surrogacy rights and regulation, which is something that the LGBTQ+ community highly values and needs to form their version of family. Through personal experience of the activist scene in Argentina and qualitative research in theory and legal results, it is clear that surrogacy has been left out due to the different treatment of the interests of queer people. It shows that there is a stronghold over the government by the Catholic Church that prevents more equitable legislation that would greatly benefit the LGBTQ+ community in Argentina. The right to family should be protected no matter what considering its importance to full sexual citizenship. Surrogacy is a right that should be properly regulated in order to better protect the right to form a family for everyone equally, including gender non-conforming women and trans women