Gay Minister for Women disconcerts men in Argentina.

Argentina's Minister of Women, Gender and Diversity, Ayelén Mazzina, 32, is disconcerting the most conservative men in Argentine politics. A political scientist, feminist, and homosexual, Mazzina is an activist for equal rights in the country. Before becoming minister, she organized the "Plurinational Meeting of Women, Lesbians, Transsexuals, Transvestites, Bisexuals, Intersex and Non-Binary People," which brought together more than 130 people in her home province of San Luis. A month later, in October 2022, Mazzina was invited by President Alberto Fernández to take over the portfolio, following the departure of then-Minister Elizabeth Gómez Alcorta.

On her social media, she argues that each person should choose their sexual orientation without societal pressure. “My grandmother used to tell me that one day I would be cured. But I wasn't sick, and luckily, she understood. She understood that my happiness is loving and being free. That love and desire are non-negotiable,” she tweeted on the eve of International Women's Day (#8M).

Like former Argentine president and vice-president Cristina Kirchner and Alberto Fernández, she is a Peronist, but she has generated public criticism from one of the main figures of opposition Peronism, the Auditor General of the Nation, Miguel Ángel Pichetto. A former senator, he is president of the Federal Republican Encounter party and often says in interviews phrases like "this is the century of women" and "women should have the same rights as men." But in a recent interview with the Buenos Aires channel LN+, he said that the Ministry of Women should be headed by a woman. "The Ministry of Women is under the command of a lesbian. They could have put a woman there. (Mazzina) is a 'chica' who is a lesbian," he said.

Mazzina received strong support on social media and from the Fernández government. “I am a woman, a lesbian, a feminist, and the Minister of Women, Gender, and Diversity of the Nation,” she responded. The minister challenged the politician to debate 'Comprehensive Sexual Education' (CSE) with her – “when he feels ready (for the debate).” Created 15 years ago, the CSE program offers sex education to children and adolescents in the country's schools. Pichetto justified his words, saying that the minister had not condemned the death of a five-year-old boy, a victim of physical violence at home, because his mother and wife share the same sexual orientation as Mazzina. 

The women were sentenced to life imprisonment, and the minister had already declared that "there are two directly responsible parties who must be condemned by the Justice system"—a reference to the case. She also said that the crime ended up being a reason for questioning feminism. This week, the Ministry was criticized by women politicians from the opposition, gathered in the Juntos por el Cambio (Together for Change) front, of which former senator and former president Mauricio Macri are part. In this presidential election year, scheduled to take place in October, Ayelen Mazzina's ministry has entered the fray in the growing electoral race.