Finnish cleric backs gay marriage law
By SAPA,
26/3/2013
Finnish Archbishop Kari Makinen Tuesday said he favoured a gender-neutral
marriage bill, as efforts continued to collect signatures in support of a petition
calling for parliament to allow same-sex marriages.
“I consider it as
an important goal. I hope we can reach equality on the matter,” Makinen, head
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church since 2010, told broadcaster MTV.
Makinen said
there was debate in the church, but that there was “a will to consider all
people as equal.”
Traditionally the
church has considered marriage to be a union between a man and woman.
A week ago, a
citizen's initiative to allow same-sex marriages was launched after a
parliamentary committee in February opted to table a proposal on a
gender-neutral marriage bill.
The call to allow
same-sex marriage is just one of the petitions underway after Finland
introduced the Citizen's Initiative Act last year. A petition signed by at
least 50,000 people can be forwarded to parliament for consideration.
The same-sex
marriage petition garnered enough signatories to clear the hurdle on its first
day, and as of Tuesday been backed by over 138,000 citizens.
Organizers hope
to collect 250,000 names before the deadline in September. Finland has a
population of 5.4 million people.
Finland's Nordic
neighbours have earlier approved same-sex marriages.
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