A narrow majority of Finland’s political party leaders say they’d support an amendment to marriage laws to allow same-sex couples solemnise their unions. During an Yle election programme Wednesday evening five political chiefs said they would support gender neutral marriage; three pledged that they would oppose the measure.
Supporters of marriage equality included National Coalition head Alexander Stubb, Social Democratic leader Antti Rinne, The Greens’ Ville Niinistö, Paavo Arhinmäki of the Left Alliance and Swedish Peoples’ Party chief Carl Haglund.
On the opposite side of the fence were Centre Party chair Juha Sipilä, the Finns Party’s Timo Soini and Päivi Räsänen of the Christian Democrats.
The quintet backing the move to rewrite Finland’s marriage laws unanimously based their position on the need to protect human rights and ensure equality.
“It’s a question of human rights, gender equality and equality,” said Prime Minister Alexander Stubb.
Read more at yle.fi
Photo By Kurt Löwenstein Educational Center International Team from Germany (qe07 (9)) [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
