Same-sex marriage has been legal in Finland since 1 March 2017. A bill for the legalisation of same-sex marriages was approved by the Finnish Parliament in a vote of 101–90 on 12 December 2014, and signed into law by President Sauli Niinistö on 20 February 2015. Further legislation to harmonise other laws with the legalisation of same-sex marriage was passed in 2016. The laws took effect on 1 March 2017. Polling suggests that a majority of Finns support the legal recognition of same-sex marriage. Finland was the last Nordic sovereign state, the twelfth country in Europe and the twentieth in the world to allow same-sex couples to marry nationwide.
From 2002 until 2017, Finland recognized registered partnerships for same-sex couples, which provided the same rights and responsibilities as marriage with the exception of joint adoption rights and the right to a joint last name.
Registered partnerships
Legislative action
Legislation introducing registered partnerships (Finnish: rekisteröity parisuhde, pronounced [ˈrekisterøi̯ty ˈpɑriˌsuhde]; Swedish: registrerat partnerskap, pronounced [re.jisˈtreːrɑt ˈpɑːrtnerskɑːp]) for same-sex couples was passed by the Parliament of Finland on 28 September 2001 with a vote of 99–84. The law went into effect on 1 March 2002. Registered partnerships, which were available only to same-sex couples, provided the same rights and responsibilities as marriage for opposite-sex couples, except for adoption rights and the ability to take a common family name, and they were registered and dissolved using a procedure similar to that for civil marriage. The legislation also granted immigration rights to a foreign partner.
The Parliament revised the law in May 2009, allowing a person in a registered partnership to adopt the biological children of their partner. On 1 March 2017, the ability to enter into a registered partnership was closed off. No further partnerships are granted in Finland, and existing registered partners only retain their status if they do not marry.
Statistics
4,215 registered partnerships were established in Finland between 2002 and 2017, with a high of 446 partnerships in 2002 and a low of 36 partnerships in 2017.
Same-sex marriage
Summary
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Finland since 1 March 2017. Legislation to open marriage to same-sex couples passed the Parliament of Finland on 12 December 2014 with support from the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the Green League, the Left Alliance, the Swedish People's Party and the National Coalition Party (NCP). The Finns Party, the Christian Democrats and the Centre Party opposed same-sex marriage, though the latter has since rejected attempts to repeal the same-sex marriage law. In Finnish public discourse, same-sex marriage is commonly referred to as "equal marriage" or "gender-neutral marriage"; in Finnish as homoavioliitto or sukupuolineutraali avioliitto (pronounced [ˈsukupuo̯liˌneu̯trɑːli ˈɑʋioliːtːo]), and in Swedish as homoäktenskap or samkönat äktenskap (pronounced [ˈsɑmːtɕøːnɑt ˈekːtenskɑːp]).
2007–2011 parliamentary term
A poll conducted by Christian newspaper Kotimaa in March 2010 showed that a narrow majority of Finnish MPs opposed same-sex marriage. Of the 126 MPs surveyed on whether they would support a gender-neutral marriage law, 46% were in favour and 54% were opposed. Support was strongest among Green and Left Alliance MPs, who unanimously supported same-sex marriage, followed by Social Democratic lawmakers at 63%. In contrast, a majority of MPs from the Centre Party and the National Coalition Party were opposed. However, a later survey in April 2010 by Helsingin Sanomat reported growing cross-party support for same-sex marriage and joint adoption rights. The Secretary of the National Coalition Party, Taru Tujunen, said that an initiative on same-sex marriage would be introduced at the next party conference. At the June 2010 party conference, NCP delegates voted in favor of a gender-neutral marriage law, although the vice-chairman of the NCP parliamentary group, Ben Zyskowicz, noted that a majority of the party's MPs remained opposed. Two weeks earlier, the Social Democrats passed a measure in favor of same-sex marriage. The Left Alliance and the Green League also support it. At the opening ceremony of Helsinki Pride on 28 June 2010, Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb endorsed a gender-neutral marriage law with full adoption rights for same-sex couples.
On 2 July 2010, Justice Minister Tuija Brax announced that the Ministry of Justice would be preparing a reform to the Marriage Act (Finnish: Avioliittolaki; Swedish: Äktenskapslag) in the autumn of 2011. It was considered possible that same-sex marriage would be legalized after the 2011 parliamentary elections, where it was speculated to turn into a major theme, though in an August 2010 survey by Yle only 20% of respondents said the issue should be a major theme.
2011–2015 parliamentary term
According to the voting advice application of the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper, 90 of the 200 MPs elected in April 2011 supported joint adoption rights for same-sex couples, while 93 MPs were opposed. Upon joining the Katainen Cabinet, the Christian Democrats demanded assurances that no government bill would legalise same-sex marriage. However, during government formation talks, it was agreed that if a legislative proposal were introduced as a member's initiative by individual MPs, it could be supported by the remaining five parties in the coalition: the National Coalition Party, the Social Democrats, the Left Alliance, the Green League and the Swedish People's Party. Such a proposal was indeed presented as a member's initiative on 29 September 2011.
On 21 March 2012, after five months of signature gathering among MPs, the bill to legalize same-sex marriage was submitted to Parliament. 76 out of the 199 voting MPs had signed their support for the draft bill, and several additional members were expected to vote for it, including Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen. On 27 February 2013, the bill was rejected by the Legal Affairs Committee in a 8–9 vote. Consequently, a similar bill was introduced as a citizens' initiative, organised by the Tahdon2013 campaign ("I do 2013"). The campaign began collecting signatures on 19 March 2013, and by the evening of the first day, it had already gathered over 90,000 online signatures—eventually reaching a total of 166,851 signatures. This far exceeded the 50,000-signature threshold required for an initiative to be submitted to Parliament.
Citizens' initiatives had only been possible in Finland since 2012. As such, in March 2013, it remained unclear whether a citizens' initiative would be treated on equal footing with a government bill (hallituksen esitys, regeringens proposition), or a member's initiative (lakialoite, lagmotion). Members' initiatives signed by at least 100 MPs are prioritised in the legislative process, while those with fewer signatures typically expire at the end of the legislative session. In April 2013, the Speaker's Council of Parliament issued guidelines for processing citizens' initiatives. According to these recommendations, all initiatives must be referred to a parliamentary committee selected by the plenary session. Within six months, the committee must inform the signatories of its planned course of action, which may include holding expert hearings or deciding whether to recommend the initiative for a vote in the plenary. The committee retains full autonomy in how it handles the initiative. Signature gathering for the same-sex marriage initiative concluded in September 2013 after the standard six months period, and the initiative was submitted to Parliament on 13 December 2013. In February 2014, it was referred to the Legal Affairs Committee. The committee voted unanimously to schedule a public hearing for 13 March 2014. Following the hearing, Yle reported that the initiative would proceed to the plenary session and would not be shelved by the committee. However, on 25 June 2014, after multiple committee hearings with experts, the Legal Affairs Committee voted 6–10 against the initiative. The vote would have been closer but two members in favour of same-sex marriage were absent and were replaced by a substitute member who voted against it.
On 20 November 2014, the committee recommended 8–9 that the Parliament reject the same-sex marriage legislation. In the bill's first reading on 28 November 2014, the full session of Parliament, by a vote of 92–105, did not accept that recommendation. Due to the Parliament not accepting the recommendation, the Grand Committee continued consideration of the initiative on 3 December 2014, eventually voting 17–8 in favour. The legislation was approved 101–90 by the full session of Parliament in its final reading on 12 December, and was signed into law by President Sauli Niinistö on 20 February 2015. The same-sex marriage law was short; it added the following sentence to article 1 of the Marriage Act: Two people who have agreed to marry each other are engaged. Parliament also approved a statement requiring the next government to draft necessary amendments to other relevant acts to replace specific references to opposite-sex couples with gender-neutral language. The law took effect on 1 March 2017.
2015–2019 parliamentary term
Following elections in April 2015, a conservative government was formed, consisting of the Centre Party, the Finns Party and the National Coalition Party. Despite a majority of its MPs having voted against same-sex marriage, it was supposed to introduce amendments to other acts which still referred to married spouses as "man and woman". While the Finns Party thought the gender-neutral marriage law should be repealed, the other two parties generally disagreed. With the exception of the Christian Democrats, all opposition parties supported updating the language in other laws to reflect gender-neutral terms.
On 22 October 2015, the Parliament began debating legislation to amend other acts that still had specific references to opposite-sex couples. Minister of Justice Jari Lindström from the Finns Party, who introduced the bill, said he did so despite his personal opposition. On 11 December 2015, the Legal Affairs Committee recommended the adoption of the bill with amendments. The bill was approved by Parliament in a 106–42 vote on 17 February 2016. It was signed by President Niinistö on 8 April 2016 and took effect on 1 March 2017, on the same day as the amendments to the Marriage Act. Among laws amended were the Act on Population Information System and the Population Register Centre Certificate Services (661/2009), the Act on the Gender Recognition of Transsexuals (563/2002), and the Religious Freedom Act (453/2003).
A bill to make necessary changes to social benefits and social and health care services was introduced on 3 November 2016, and approved by the Parliament in a 128–28 vote on 13 December 2016. It was signed by President Niinistö on 13 January 2017, and took effect alongside the amendments to the Marriage Act on 1 March.
A citizens' initiative to repeal the gender-neutral marriage law was launched on 29 March 2015. The initiative collected almost 110,000 signatures by 29 September 2015 and was presented to the Parliament on 22 June 2016. On 8 September 2016, it was referred to the Legal Affairs Committee after a plenary debate. On 15 February 2017, the committee recommended that the Parliament reject the initiative. On 17 February, the Parliament voted to accept the committee's recommendation by a 120–48 margin with 2 abstentions.
Finland was the last Nordic country to introduce same-sex marriage. Although the change has brought it into alignment with its Nordic neighbours, this represents a significant difference of approach to neighbouring Russia, which historically exercised influence in Finland's affairs through Finlandisation and is hostile to LGBTQ rights.
Statistics
In the first month after the gender-neutral marriage law came into effect, 857 same-sex marriages were recorded in Finland. Of these, 87 were newly performed marriages, while 770 were conversions of existing registered partnerships. By August 2017, 1,578 same-sex marriages had taken place in the country, of which 456 were new marriages and 1,122 were partnerships converted to marriages. The following table shows the number of marriages and divorces performed in Finland as per data published by Statistics Finland. It does not include conversions from registered partnerships.