Finland Supreme Court Convicts Räsänen on Incitement Charge

Finland's Supreme Court ruled on March 26 that parliamentarian Päivi Räsänen and Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola committed the offense of incitement against a group by distributing and maintaining online access to a 2004 church pamphlet that described homosexuality as a developmental disorder. The decision, reached by a 3-2 vote, imposed a fine of about 1,800 euros on Räsänen, based on her income, and a 5,000-euro corporate fine on the organizations involved. The court also ordered the removal of specific passages from the pamphlet deemed insulting to homosexuals as a group based on their sexual orientation.

The pamphlet, titled "Male and Female He Created Them: Homosexual Relationships Challenge the Christian Concept of Humanity," was authored by Räsänen, a medical doctor, long-serving member of the Christian Democrats party and former interior minister. It expressed views on gender and sexuality from a Christian perspective, including concerns about the effects of normalizing same-sex relationships on children and adolescents. The court found that Räsänen continued to share the material on her website and social media in 2019 and 2020, after an investigation began, and that...