Finland’s Supreme Court fined a Member of Parliament for calling homosexuality a “developmental disorder”, in a landmark ruling.
Paivi Rasanen, a long-serving MP for the Christian Democratic party, was found guilty on Tuesday of incitement against a group in a long-running precedent case.
Dr Rasanen, a medical doctor and MP for the small Christian Democratic party since 1995, was convicted for claims made in a 2019 social media post and on her website in 2020.
She asserted it was “scientifically proven” that homosexuality constituted a developmental disorder, a statement the court deemed incitement.
The Supreme Court ordered Dr Rasanen to pay a fine of 1,800 euros (£1,540), equivalent to approximately $2,080. This decision overturns previous acquittals by lower courts.
In its 3-2 majority verdict, the court stated: “The Supreme Court considers that… Rasanen must have understood that, for example, claiming that homosexuality is a disorder of psychosexual development is, in light of the prevailing medical understanding, an incorrect assertion.”
Dr Rasanen has been supported by the US-based conservative legal group, Alliance Defending Freedom, that campaigns for free speech and has tried to use her case as an example of how “Europe is censoring the world”.
Dr Rasanen called the outcome “a shock” and told reporters she would consider appealing the ruling at the European Court of Human Rights.
Finnish government ministers from Rasanen’s party and the nationalist Finns Party immediately called for freedom of speech and legislative changes.
Ville Tavio, the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development from the Finns Party, a devout Christian himself, told reporters: “The law on incitement against a group should be amended.”
The Supreme Court acquitted Dr Rasanen of a separate charge based on a picture of a quote from the Bible condemning gay relations, which she shared in a social media post in 2019.
The case has also drawn international attention, with Republicans in the US House of Representatives inviting Dr Rasanen to speak about her case at its Judiciary Committee in Washington earlier this year, at a hearing entitled “Europe’s Threat to American Speech and Innovation”.