A Finnish member of parliament has been convicted of hate speech, part of an ongoing erosion of basic free speech rights, which we’ve seen accelerated in Europe. Western values are under attack here, and the reasoning behind this person’s conviction is, frankly, ridiculous. It makes you proud to be an American, and the fact that we have a codified right to free speech.
Päivi Räsänen, a medical doctor by trade, claims that homosexuality is a developmental disorder, which she included in a church pamphlet. She quoted the Bible to back up her claims. Look, I don’t care about her views on this, but her right to express them has been muzzled. What’s worse is that two lower court rulings cleared her of such charges, but the Finnish Supreme Court ruled 3-2 that her works incited hatred (via The Guardian):
A Finnish member of parliament has been found guilty by the country’s supreme court of inciting hatred after claiming that homosexuality was a “developmental disorder”, in a conviction that prompted criticism from far-right government ministers.
Päivi Räsänen, of the Christian Democrats, made the claims in a pamphlet first published in 2004 and reproduced on the website of the Luther Foundation Finland and the Finnish Evangelical Mission Diocese in 2007.
In a 3-2 vote, the supreme court on Thursday found Räsänen guilty of a crime when she republished the pamphlet on Facebook in 2019 and on her website the following year. She was fined €1,800. The court ruled her claim that homosexuality was a disorder of psychosexual development was incorrect.
Räsänen was supported in her case by the US-based conservative legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom, which has tried to use her case as an example of censorship in Europe. The group has ramped up its global spending on litigation and other campaigns after successfully overturning Roe v Wade, which protected the right to abortion, in the US.
“I am shocked and profoundly disappointed that the court has failed to recognize my basic human right to freedom of expression. I stand by the teachings of my Christian faith, and will continue to defend my and every person’s right to share their convictions in the public square,” Räsänen said in a statement.
She will now appeal this ruling to the European Court of Human Rights.
Quoting scripture is okay, but expressing belief in it is not.
