Summary Same-sex marriage has been legal in Finland since 1 March 2017. Legislation to open marriage to same-sex couples passed the
Parliament of Finland on 12 December 2014 with support from the
Social Democratic Party (SDP), the
Green League, the
Left Alliance, the
Swedish People's Party and the
National Coalition Party (NCP). The
Finns Party, the
Christian Democrats and the
Centre Party opposed same-sex marriage, though the latter has since rejected attempts to repeal the same-sex marriage law. In Finnish public discourse, same-sex marriage is commonly referred to as "equal marriage" or "gender-neutral marriage"; in
Finnish as or (), and in
Swedish as or ().
2007–2011 parliamentary term A poll conducted by
Christian newspaper
Kotimaa in March 2010 showed that a narrow majority of
Finnish MPs opposed same-sex marriage. Of the 126 MPs surveyed on whether they would support a gender-neutral marriage law, 46% were in favour and 54% were opposed. Support was strongest among Green and Left Alliance MPs, who unanimously supported same-sex marriage, followed by Social Democratic lawmakers at 63%. In contrast, a majority of MPs from the Centre Party and the National Coalition Party were opposed. However, a later survey in April 2010 by
Helsingin Sanomat reported growing cross-party support for same-sex marriage and joint adoption rights. The Secretary of the National Coalition Party, Taru Tujunen, said that an initiative on same-sex marriage would be introduced at the next party conference. At the June 2010 party conference, NCP delegates voted in favor of a gender-neutral marriage law, although the vice-chairman of the NCP parliamentary group,
Ben Zyskowicz, noted that a majority of the party's MPs remained opposed. Two weeks earlier, the Social Democrats passed a measure in favor of same-sex marriage. The Left Alliance and the Green League also support it. At the opening ceremony of
Helsinki Pride on 28 June 2010, Foreign Minister
Alexander Stubb endorsed a gender-neutral marriage law with full
adoption rights for same-sex couples. On 2 July 2010, Justice Minister
Tuija Brax announced that the
Ministry of Justice would be preparing a reform to the
Marriage Act (; ) in the autumn of 2011. It was considered possible that same-sex marriage would be legalized after the
2011 parliamentary elections, where it was speculated to turn into a major theme, though in an August 2010 survey by
Yle only 20% of respondents said the issue should be a major theme.
2011–2015 parliamentary term According to the
voting advice application of the
Helsingin Sanomat newspaper, 90 of the 200
MPs elected in April 2011 supported joint adoption rights for same-sex couples, while 93 MPs were opposed. Upon joining the
Katainen Cabinet, the
Christian Democrats demanded assurances that no government bill would legalise same-sex marriage. However, during government formation talks, it was agreed that if a legislative proposal were introduced as a
member's initiative by individual MPs, it could be supported by the remaining five parties in the coalition: the
National Coalition Party, the
Social Democrats, the
Left Alliance, the
Green League and the
Swedish People's Party. Such a proposal was indeed presented as a member's initiative on 29 September 2011. On 21 March 2012, after five months of signature gathering among MPs, the bill to legalize same-sex marriage was submitted to Parliament. 76 out of the 199 voting MPs had signed their support for the draft bill, and several additional members were expected to vote for it, including Prime Minister
Jyrki Katainen. On 27 February 2013, the bill was rejected by the Legal Affairs Committee in a 8–9 vote. Consequently, a similar bill was introduced as a citizens' initiative, organised by the campaign ("I do 2013"). The campaign began collecting signatures on 19 March 2013, and by the evening of the first day, it had already gathered over 90,000 online signatures—eventually reaching a total of 166,851 signatures. This far exceeded the 50,000-signature threshold required for an initiative to be submitted to Parliament. Citizens' initiatives had only been possible in Finland since 2012. As such, in March 2013, it remained unclear whether a citizens' initiative would be treated on equal footing with a government bill (, ), or a member's initiative (, ). Members' initiatives signed by at least 100 MPs are prioritised in the legislative process, while those with fewer signatures typically expire at the end of the legislative session. In April 2013, the Speaker's Council of Parliament issued guidelines for processing citizens' initiatives. According to these recommendations, all initiatives must be referred to a parliamentary committee selected by the plenary session. Within six months, the committee must inform the signatories of its planned course of action, which may include holding expert hearings or deciding whether to recommend the initiative for a vote in the plenary. The committee retains full autonomy in how it handles the initiative. Signature gathering for the same-sex marriage initiative concluded in September 2013 after the standard six months period, and the initiative was submitted to Parliament on 13 December 2013. In February 2014, it was referred to the Legal Affairs Committee. The committee voted unanimously to schedule a public hearing for 13 March 2014. Following the hearing,
Yle reported that the initiative would proceed to the plenary session and would not be shelved by the committee. However, on 25 June 2014, after multiple committee hearings with experts, the Legal Affairs Committee voted 6–10 against the initiative. The vote would have been closer but two members in favour of same-sex marriage were absent and were replaced by a substitute member who voted against it. On 20 November 2014, the committee recommended 8–9 that the Parliament reject the same-sex marriage legislation. In the bill's first reading on 28 November 2014, the full session of Parliament, by a vote of 92–105, did not accept that recommendation. Due to the Parliament not accepting the recommendation, the
Grand Committee continued consideration of the initiative on 3 December 2014, eventually voting 17–8 in favour. The legislation was approved 101–90 by the full session of Parliament in its final reading on 12 December, and was signed into law by
President Sauli Niinistö on 20 February 2015. The same-sex marriage law was short; it added the following sentence to article 1 of the
Marriage Act:
Two people who have agreed to marry each other are engaged. Parliament also approved a statement requiring the next government to draft necessary amendments to other relevant acts to replace specific references to opposite-sex couples with
gender-neutral language. The law took effect on 1 March 2017.
2015–2019 parliamentary term Following
elections in April 2015, a
conservative government was formed, consisting of the Centre Party, the Finns Party and the National Coalition Party. Despite a majority of its MPs having voted against same-sex marriage, it was supposed to introduce amendments to other acts which still referred to married spouses as "man and woman". While the Finns Party thought the gender-neutral marriage law should be repealed, the other two parties generally disagreed. With the exception of the Christian Democrats, all opposition parties supported updating the language in other laws to reflect gender-neutral terms. On 22 October 2015, the Parliament began debating legislation to amend other acts that still had specific references to opposite-sex couples. Minister of Justice
Jari Lindström from the Finns Party, who introduced the bill, said he did so despite his personal opposition. On 11 December 2015, the Legal Affairs Committee recommended the adoption of the bill with amendments. The bill was approved by Parliament in a 106–42 vote on 17 February 2016. It was signed by President Niinistö on 8 April 2016 and took effect on 1 March 2017, on the same day as the amendments to the
Marriage Act. Among laws amended were the
Act on Population Information System and the Population Register Centre Certificate Services (661/2009), the
Act on the Gender Recognition of Transsexuals (563/2002), and the
Religious Freedom Act (453/2003). A bill to make necessary changes to social benefits and social and health care services was introduced on 3 November 2016, and approved by the Parliament in a 128–28 vote on 13 December 2016. It was signed by President Niinistö on 13 January 2017, and took effect alongside the amendments to the
Marriage Act on 1 March. A citizens' initiative to repeal the gender-neutral marriage law was launched on 29 March 2015. The initiative collected almost 110,000 signatures by 29 September 2015 and was presented to the Parliament on 22 June 2016. On 8 September 2016, it was referred to the Legal Affairs Committee after a plenary debate. On 15 February 2017, the committee recommended that the Parliament reject the initiative. On 17 February, the Parliament voted to accept the committee's recommendation by a 120–48 margin with 2 abstentions. Finland was the last
Nordic country to introduce same-sex marriage. Although the change has brought it into alignment with its Nordic neighbours, this represents a significant difference of approach to neighbouring
Russia, which historically exercised influence in Finland's affairs through
Finlandisation and is hostile to LGBTQ rights.
Statistics In the first month after the gender-neutral marriage law came into effect, 857 same-sex marriages were recorded in Finland. Of these, 87 were newly performed marriages, while 770 were conversions of existing registered partnerships. By August 2017, 1,578 same-sex marriages had taken place in the country, of which 456 were new marriages and 1,122 were partnerships converted to marriages. The following table shows the number of marriages and divorces performed in Finland as per data published by
Statistics Finland. It does not include conversions from registered partnerships.
Religious performance Same-sex marriage remains a controversial topic in the
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, the largest
Christian denomination in Finland. Thousands of Finns resigned from the Church in November 2014 due to comments made by some church officials supporting the new marriage legislation. Many priests officiate at same-sex marriages and offer their
blessings to the couples. However, the matter is contentious within the Church. In November 2020, a group of ministers opposed to same-sex marriage called on the church
synod to sanction priests who officiate at such marriages. The
Archbishop of Turku,
Tapio Luoma, has called on
dioceses not to sanction priests who perform marriages for same-sex couples, saying that the issue "cannot be settled by sanctions" but that "any solution for the [C]hurch must be based on the fact that there can be disagreement on the matter". A 2019 survey conducted by the
University of Eastern Finland showed that 57% of priests in the Evangelical Lutheran Church would marry same-sex couples if explicitly permitted by the church leadership to do so. In September 2020, the
Supreme Administrative Court of Finland ruled that diocesan chapters may sanction priests who perform same-sex marriages. The
Diocese of Helsinki has taken a position not to issue warnings to priests who perform same-sex marriages. however, it failed to reach the required threshold at a vote on 9 May 2025. It passed by 62 votes to 40—15 short of the 77 required. In November 2024, two parish churches in
Vantaa voted to allow same-sex marriages. ==Public opinion==