The survey on attitudes to proposed reforms to Finnish marriage legislation was commissioned by the Facebook-based grassroots movement known as "We oppose gender neutral marriage".
Some 46 percent of respondents to the survey felt that marriage should be defined as the union between a man and a woman and 40 percent said this definition shouldn’t change. Roughly 14 percent of tinterviewees did not express an opinion on the matter.
Sakari Nurmela of TNS Gallup said that the results indicate that the question of overhauling the marriage act is a divisive issue in Finland, with opinions falling almost evenly on either side of the debate.
Last December a citizens’ initiative on gender neutral marriage gathered support from 166,000 signatories and forced the Parliament to revisit the issue of reform to existing marriage laws to allow same-sex couples the same legal rights as traditional couples -- including the right to adopt outside their family circles. The amendment is now being considered by the Legal Affairs Committee, following which a plenary session of Parliament will vote on the bill.
Many on the fence on family make-up
Respondents to the survey were also asked what kind of family would be best for adopted children. Just over 60 percent (62 percent) said the traditional family lead by a man and a woman would be the best candidates for adoption.
However Gallup’s Nurmela said this figure doesn’t necessarily mean that Finns would be averse to other kinds of families adopting.
A solid one-third of interviewees said they could not respond to the question. Nurmela said this represented a high proportion of respondents – double the result polls usually yield in terms of undecideds. He said it could point to the fact that highly personal questions are not always easy to answer.
