The bill on marriage equality reached the parliament on the basis of people power, with a citizen’s initiative on the matter gathering the 50,000 votes needed to take it before lawmakers in just one day back in March 2013. By the time it reached the Parliament it had garnered the support of more than 170,000 signatures.
However lawmakers weren’t sufficiently swayed by public opinion to change current marriage legislation to give same-sex couples the right to solemnise their unions.
A rainbow coalition of MPs voted against the measure, including members of the Centre Party, the Finns Party, the Christian Democrats and three members of the National Coalition party.
On the other side of the fence were Parliamentarians from the Social Democratic Party, the Greens, the Left Alliance and the Swedish Peoples’ Party.
Two of the lawmakers, the NCP’s Kalle Jokinen and the Finns Party’s Mika Niikko openly declared their position against the bill. Both said that their votes fit well with the UN’s Universal Children’s Day, which was commemorated Wednesday.
Openly homosexual Green League MP Jani Toivola voted in favour of the bill, saying that it’s important for defenders of the proposed legislation to challenge the outcome of the vote so that the entire legislature would have to vote on the matter.
“In this objection we will propose that that existing marriage laws be amended to allow same-sex couples to marry in the future. In our view this is an important issue of equality and would also safeguard citizens’ rights to non-discrimination,” Toivola added.
Interior Minister: Gender-neutral marriage contrary to declaration of human rights
Interior Minister and Christian Democratic chair Päivi Räsänen meanwhile said in a radio interview yesterday that her opposition to marriage equality is based on the UN’s 1948 Declaration of Human Rights.
“If we think about the UN declaration, which is significant from the perspective of a universal understanding of human rights, it says that everyone has the right … every man and woman has the right to marriage, in other words it defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman,” Räsänen said on Radio Helsinki’s programme "Tasavalta" (The Republic).
Räsänen maintained that the definition of marriage as a union between a man and woman was not her own interpretation of the Declaration, but said that it constituted the objective meaning of the text.
“Well I say that this is interpretation is precisely what is meant. Otherwise it would have said that an adult person has the right to marriage. In other words it talks specifically about men and women, who have the right to marry. I am fully convinced that this is what is meant here,” she insisted.
Article 16.1 of the Universal Declaration of Human rights states:
“Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.”
MPs to revisit legislation
Back in June the Legal Affairs Committee voted to prepare a dissenting statement on the proposal to amend current marriage laws to allow for gay marriage.
The bill proposing based on the citizens’ initiative will come before the full sitting of Parliament next week, and MPs will vote on the Committee’s position at the end of the week on November 28.
Lawmakers see the measure as a vote of conscience, freeing them to vote on the basis of personal views rather than having to conform to party lines on the matter. In spite of the Committee’s opposition to the proposal, Parliamentarians may still vote in favour of marriage equality.
If the Committee is ruled by the full sitting of MPs, the bill will be redirected to Parliament’s Grand Committee before returning to the full session for a second vote.
If the bill gets the green light from MPs, lawmakers will have to consider amendments to a slew of other legislation that would grant same-sex couples the same rights as traditional couples, including the right to share the same surname, to use double-barreled names that include the name of their spouses and to jointly adopt children outside of their family circle.
