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Finnish Parliament narrowly votes for “gay marriage”. But still more hurdles before final passage. Fight continues!

Homosexuals and allies celebrating. Pro-family forces (with MassResistance!) & politicians press on to stop it.

After vote: 12.000 leave Finnish Lutheran Church over pro-gay marriage remarks by Archbishop!

POSTED: December 8, 2014

On Friday, Nov. 28, the Finnish Parliament narrowly passed a “gay marriage” bill by 105-92. Homosexual activists and mainstream news outlets around the world were celebrating, declaring Finland to be the “12th European country” to legalize it. This has caused a firestorm among the country’s conservatives.

But unlike in other European countries, due to the intricacies of the Finnish legislative system it could still be stopped or rescinded before its effective date of 2017 (when “gay marriages” would officially begin). It must pass in Parliament again (see description below) before it is “final.”

The vote came after 2½ years of attempts by the homosexual lobby to bring it before the full Parliament. It was stalled twice in committee. In  2013 the homosexual lobby was forced to gather 166,000 signatures to get it back into Parliament after being rejected.

Up until the end, both sides were lobbying very hard. As we reported earlier, the MassResistance video on “What ‘gay marriage’ did to Massachusetts” was broadcast nationally at least twice, and we also supplied other lobbying materials to the religious coalition.

Media and money helped push it

As here in the United States, the same-sex marriage movement is propelled by a friendly mainstream media and huge funding and support from large corporations, as well as well-funded LGBT advocacy groups.

In this case, the vote in Parliament was likely pushed over the top by an overwhelming pro-gay marriage media blitz. As the coalition leader emailed to us:

Major corporations in Finland jumped right into fight. According to one news report:

It’s eerie how large corporations invariably line up on only the bad side of the “culture war.” That’s why they must be confronted the same as politicians.

Outrage: 12,000 leave Finnish Lutheran Church after Bishop’s pro-gay marriage remarks

During the months leading up to the vote, the Archbishop of the Finnish Lutheran Church supported the idea of same-sex marriage in many of his public communications. But immediately after the vote he posted on Facebook, “I rejoice with my whole heart” in the bill’s passage, and went on to say that “our concept of marriage needs a fundamental examination.” That really got people’s attention.

It sent a wave of anger and outrage across the country. Within a day, according to news reports, nearly 8,000 Finns had officially resigned from the Finnish Lutheran Church using an online web service. By the following Thursday 12,000 had resigned. Since the Lutheran Church is funded by obligatory church membership taxes from church members, each defection has a financial impact on the church.

This is likely just the beginning of the backlash. Among other things, there is great anxiety about the adoption of children by “married” homosexual couples (currently in Finland homosexual couples may not adopt children). There is also a fear that the churches will eventually be required to perform homosexual “weddings.”

There is no question that religious people in Finland are passionate about this issue.

Conservative political parties react strongly

After the vote, Päivi Räsänen, the head of the Finnish Christian Democrat Party (a key part of the ruling coalition in Parliament) told the press that they will take whatever steps necessary to derail the bill before its final passage.

She also attacked the Finnish Prime Minister for making remarks in support of same-sex marriage prior to the vote in Parliament and probably swaying many members, saying that the remarks were not representative of all the parties in the coalition.

Back in October, she reportedly had threatened to pull her party out of the coalition if the gay marriage bill passed, but apparently reconsidered that action.

In addition, the nationalist Finns Party, the main opposition party in Parliament, is also looking to overturn the law before it goes into effect, according to news reports. Their leader, Timo Soini, described parliament's vote to legalize gay marriage as "damaging", saying that "this will be the first time we make it normal for children to be removed from their biological roots."

Could likely affect 2015 Finnish elections coming up

Also in the mix are the upcoming national elections for all 200 seats in Parliament, which are coming up in April 2015 – about 5 months from now.  The leader of the religious coalition told us that they believe this vote could have an effect on the election, turning out many more pro-family voters. They intend to use this issue strongly:

More legislative action ahead before it’s a done deal.

The bill would allow “gay marriages” to begin in 2017. However, this was just the first of two “readings” (i.e., votes) of Parliament which it must pass.

This is where the April elections come into play. Bills do not “die” at the end of a session, as they do here. Thus, the second reading could be voted either before or after the elections.

But before the second vote it must get through the “Grand Committee” of Parliament, which is a large committee of party leaders. This is mostly a debate and deliberation process, and is not considered a threat to stop it. However, amendments or changes would be made to it there.

Should all of this happen before the April elections, it’s possible that the newly elected Parliament could repeal it when they meet. But that’s not the likely scenario, we’re told.

Given the other business currently before Parliament and the upcoming campaign season, it’s most likely that the vote, and maybe also the Grand Committee session, will take place after the April election, when the new Parliament convenes. That puts it up in the air, and gives the pro-family people both in and out of government a good chance to stop it, we’re told, and to warn the population of the effects of “gay marriage” over the upcoming five months.

As they described to us, that’s the scenario the religious coalition is looking for:

Possible national referendum

If none of that stops the bill, there has been considerable talk from politicians and activists to pressure Parliament for a national referendum to repeal the “gay marriage” bill. That could take place before the 2017 start of “gay marriages”. As the coalition leader continued:

Also battling international forces, including the US government

Unfortunately the LGBT movement in Finland, like in many other countries around the world, receives financial and organizational help from international sources.

Thus, much of the funding used to push the LGBT agenda in Finland is also coming from the United States government and the Finnish Government itself!

On May 15, 2014 – the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia“ -- the US and Finland signed a joint statement to substantially increase Findland’s monetary support for the “Global Equality Fund.”  (This Fund also gets millions of dollars each year from a who’s who of left-wing private foundations and corporations.) When necessary it works with the United Nations and local diplomatic resources.

Coordinated by the US State Department, the Fund directs money into countries around the world for  LGBT “legislative advocacy” and to “strengthen” local LGBT organizations, to change laws and culture in those countries. A portion of this comes right back to Finland. We suspect that’s how the Finnish homosexual lobby was able to put together such a successful petition drive in 2013 in a relatively short timeframe, to get the bill back on track.

From the U.S. State Department's official blog.

The fight continues

MassResistance will continue to help the Finns on this critical national issue. Yes, this is why American homosexual groups like the radical Human Rights Campaign (HRC) have been targeting us and trying to harass and intimidate us. As they’ve said several times, our material has been very effective. And we’re not backing down on this one!