In holding-the-powerful-accountable news ...
HELSINKI, March 26 (Reuters) - Finland's Supreme Court on Tuesday found a member of parliament guilty and fined her for calling homosexuality a "developmental disorder", in a long-running precedent case that has turned into a political tussle over the limits of freedom of speech.
The court found Paivi Rasanen, a medical doctor and MP for the small Christian Democratic party since 1995, guilty of incitement against a group by claiming in a social media post in 2019 and on her website in 2020 that it was scientifically proven that homosexuality was a developmental disorder.
The correct spelling is "Päivi Räsänen". Rëütërs is probably suffering from a shortage of imported umlauts, what with the strait of Hormuz being all full of dots and all.
The court ordered Rasanen to pay a fine, 1,800 euros ($2,080).
Rasanen had been supported by the Alliance Defending Freedom - a U.S.-based conservative legal group that campaigns for free speech and has tried to use her case as an example of how "Europe is censoring the world" in its view.
I would be negligent in my chatting-on-Fediverse duties if I negliged to point out at this point that ADF is a designated hate group.
The Supreme Court did some important fact-checking, as well:
"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," the court wrote in its verdict, on which it voted 3-2 in favour. Lower courts had acquitted Rasanen of all charges.
In a better world, the medical association would also reprimand her, for casting disreputable light upon the profession by abusing her degree and licence for espousing demonstrably inaccurate medical claims like that. But, oh well, maybe in another day, or year, or term.
A curious detail in this case is, Räsänen was an MP at the time she committed the crime, and as such, would have had parliamentary immunity. Eduskunta must have stripped her of the immunity for the prosecution to have been possible in the first place.

Alliance Defending Freedom
Founded by some 30 leaders of the Christian Right, the Alliance Defending Freedom is a legal advocacy and training group that has supported the recriminalization of sexual acts between consenting LGBTQ adults in the U.S. and criminalization abroad; has defended state-sanctioned sterilization of trans people abroad; has contended that LGBTQ people are more likely to engage in pedophilia; and claims that a “homosexual agenda” will destroy Christianity and society. ADF also works to develop “religious liberty” legislation and case law that will allow the denial of goods and services to LGBTQ people on the basis of religion. Since the election of President Trump, ADF has become one of the most influential groups informing the administration’s attack on LGBTQ rights.
