Finland Times

A citizens’ initiative which seeks to repeal the same-sex Marriage Act accumulated 50,000 signatureson Saturday.

At least 50,000 signatures are necessary to send any bill from citizens’ platform to parliament.

Jukka-Pekka Rahkonen who launched the citizens’ initiative believes that a gender-neutral marriage law would mean that fatherhood and motherhood would no longer have meaning.

In his view, the law would make it quite immaterial as to whether the child has a father or a mother, just that the child has legal parents.

“Society must recognise that marriage is based upon a special status founded on the reality of the child’s development and that it is essential that the child has a father and a mother,” said Rahkonen. 

According to him, marriage between a man and a woman is society’s most important structure, an institution that has been in existence before that of any laws or state. 

“Yet what about single parents and other non-traditional family models?  If a child is adopted, do they not in that case give up their biological parents?  Of course, a child’s best interests are not always going to be realised, be it in the situation of a single parent, or even of those where the other partner is deceased,” he said 

According to Rahkonen, gender-neutral law could victimise a child, if he or she does not have a father or a mother.

Rahkonen also believes that the law could lead to limitations on personal freedom of expression and, for example, on surrogacy in developing countries.