Finnish parliamentary support for gay marriage and adoption rights

lesbiansRegardless of the outcome of next year’s Finnish parliamentary elections, the governing majority is expected to implement a motion in support of gender-neutral marriage and adoption.

A new survey by Helsingin Sanomat revealed that there is little political opposition to the notion of allowing same-sex couples to adopt.

The newspaper study found that the larger political parties held few objections to gay couples adopting, with only the True Finns and Christian League opposing a change in the law. All candidates for the leadership of the governing Centre Party, except for Paavo Vayrynen, were in favour of the idea, and the Social Democrats and the conservative National Coalition were also positive about the concept.

Taru Tujunen, the National Coalition Party secretary, said an initiative would be put forward at the next party congress which would call for gender-neutral marriage. The SDP will also make similar calls for adoption rights for same-sex couples during their May party congress.

The idea of gender-neutral marriage was first touted by the Green League’s Oras Tynkkynen last year, while party secretay Panu Laturi said, “The present law on marriage is discriminatory. Couples of the same gender still do not have the right to marry the person that they love.”

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