Finland Times

The citizen initiative bill brought by an organization named Aito avioliitto (True Marriage) was rejected by the House by 120 votes to 48 where 29 lawmakers remained abstained from casting vote and two remained absent.

The initiative to keep the provision for allowing marriage only between a man and woman gained more than 100,000 signatures and forwarded to the parliament for final decision.

A citizen initiative needs to receive at least 50,000 signatures to be eligible for submission to parliament.

The organisers of the citizens’ initiative believe that a gender-neutral marriage law would mean that fatherhood and motherhood would no longer have meaning.

In their 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.

The Finnish parliament on November 28, 2014 passed the first ever citizen initiative to introduce same sex marriage in Finland.

The vote was 105 in favor and 92 against that time, a winning margin which was larger than observers had originally predicted

President Sauli Niinistö in February 2015 signed and confirmed the law that makes same-sex marriages legal in the country.

The law will go into effect on March 1, 2017.