Homosexual immoral marriage a step closer for Finland
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| English: Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb in Vienna, 10 April 2008. Suomi: Ulkoasiainministeri Alexander Stubb Wienissä 10. huhtikuuta 2008. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
HELSINKI, March 21, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A total of 107,000 signatures have been collected for a petition that will be brought by campaigners to the Finnish parliament asking the Nordic country to install “gay marriage,” including adoption rights.
That number was reached in one day. Only 50,000 signatures were required to bring a “gender-neutral marriage” bill to parliament.
The “I Do 2013” campaign was launched on Tuesday, and received such huge support from the Finnish public that it crashed the kansalaisaloite.fi hosting website.
The petition follows the defeat of a “gender-neutral” marriage bill proposed by the National Coalition Party (NCP) minister Alexander Stubb. The bill was rejected in committee 9 votes to 8 and so failed to move before the full legislature for consideration.
Finland created same-sex civil partnerships in 2002, but retained the traditional definition of marriage and restricted adoption of children to couples in natural marriage. In 2009, the law was amended to allow those in same-sex partnerships to adopt the other partner’s biological children.
A law proposed in April 2011 would have allowed external adoption by same-sex civil partners but it was narrowly defeated in Parliament by a vote of 90 to 93.
