We’re not done yet: LGBT rights in Finland aren’t perfect

For the entirety of last week, Helsinki was flooded with diverse expressions of sexuality and gender thanks to Helsinki Pride. Arranged annually by HeSeta and partners, Helsinki Pride is Finland’s largest event for sexual and gender minorities. It takes place the week after Midsummer with an attendance of tens of thousands.

For an onlooker observing the parade through Helsinki on Saturday, it is easy to feel joy and solidarity over how far Finland has come in respecting basic individual rights. After a tear gas attack on the parade in 2010 by perpetrators with ties to neo-Nazi groups, the popularity of the event has only increased.

Major urban areas in Finland appear to be good places to live openly as an LGBT person. History is far from rosy. Pride parades enjoy a very recent past as demonstrations for basic human rights rather than a smiley-faced opportunity for institutions to remind us of their open-mindedness.

The present is also far from perfection for LGBT people in Finland. The situation remains flawed for transgender and intersex individuals in particular. These are some milestones in Finnish legislation relevant to LGBT issues sourced from Seta, Finland’s main LGBT rights organization.

Stockholm was the gay utopia

Homosexuality was decriminalized in 1971. The promotion of homosexuality or homosexual acts remained illegal. The classification of homosexuality as a medical condition was abolished a decade later.

Many older people remember the post-war years when Stockholm was a promised land. Finnish tabloids cultivated the idea that all Swedes must be gay since homosexuality was decriminalized in Sweden in 1944.

In Finland, discrimination based on sexuality was prohibited in 1995. Discrimination based on gender identity or expression was prohibited in 2005.

Civil unions or registered partnerships were introduced in 2002. These granted access to limited rights similar to marriage. Rights were amended to include adoption of the other partner’s children in 2009.

The debate over gender-neutral marriage continued after the 2011 parliamentary election. The system of citizen initiatives resulted in 167,000 citizens signing a petition which led to the approval of the bill in November 2014.

The confusion over sexuality vs gender vs anatomy

The term gay rights is not a very inclusive affair. While mainstream culture seems increasingly accepting of homosexual behavior, many issues related to gender minorities are still clouded by ignorance.

The appearance of a body is not always indicative of gender. Many cultures insist on a binary where gender is determined by one of two acceptable sets of reproductive organs. This is not the case.

Intersex babies are born every day with visible or invisible ambiguity in their gendered anatomy. Doctors make choices and mutilate many of these children to produce genitalia that conform to prevailing norms. These alterations often cram them into a set of expectations that may be wrong later in life.

Such mutilation is often performed in secrecy. Parents and doctors have kept this information hidden from the child well into adulthood. This denies them the opportunity to explore the reality of their gender. Some doctors defend this practice. Such guesswork is lax for the scientific standards expected from the medical profession.

Finnish transgender rights are dented by punitive bureaucracy

One omission in Finnish human rights is the treatment of transgender or non-binary persons. This includes individuals who identify as the opposite of the gender assigned at birth or who find neither category correct. It also includes intersex individuals whose gender was misassigned at infancy.

The process of reassigning legal gender in Finland requires a doctor’s diagnosis. People expressing gender non-conformity or with conditions such as depression are routinely denied diagnosis and care. Depression is often a symptom of untreated gender dysphoria.

After diagnosis, a person can apply for a differently gendered name. The ID papers are still prescribed to the same gender as before. People are legally forced to carry ID papers that may involuntarily expose them as transgender for at least an entire year. This causes endless everyday inconvenience.