Mr Gay Finland 2012 Janne Tiilikainen (c) Mr Gay Finland
Finland remains the only Nordic country where a marriage between same-sex couples is not allowed.
In late February 2013, Judiciary Committee of the Finnish Parliament rejected a proposal for an equal marriage act. The proposal was voted down by votes 9 – 8.
On the 19th of March a campaign called ‘Tahdon2013’ (Tahdon is Finnish for “I do”) started. The main purpose of the campaign is to collect as many signatures as possible from Finnish citizens for a citizens’ initiative.
The initiative will be presented to the Finnish Parliament at latest in the end of September. The campaign has been created, planned and implemented originally by a group of friends, who wanted to take an initiative for an equal marriage act.
In order to be able to submit the initiative to the Parliament, the initiative has to have at least 50 000 supporters. The very first day, when the collecting of the supporters started, more than 100 000 people signed the initiative in support of the equal marriage act! As this article is being published almost 150 000 peole have signed the initiative.
Already at this stage it is guaranteed that the initiative will make its way to the Parliament. Even if there are already more signatures than needed, the organizers hope to have at least 250 000 supporters for the initiative, before they submit it to the Parliament. What happens after that remains to be seen; we wish the very best of luck for our brothers and sisters in Finland.