MP Hirvisaari sparks new controversy by calling homosexuality a “disability”

James Hirvisaari

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Comments on homosexuality by Finns Party MP James Hirvisaari on an online chat site have prompted a request for a police investigation.
      Writing on the Hommaforum website, Hirvisaari compared homosexuality with developmental disability.
     
“In my opinion there would be reason to ask if homosexuality would involve some kind of sexual developmental disability, if a person does not develop in the natural manner”, Hirvisaari wrote.
      He added that even a disabled people needs to accept themselves for what they are.
      He emphasised that homosexuality or disability does not erase human dignity, and that his comments are not “anti-homosexual incitement of hate”, and that he is “genuinely wondering”.
     
Hirvisaari himself sent an e-mail to Helsingin Sanomat, saying that he had not intended to raise any new debate on homosexuality.
      The discussion was sparked by a Facebook update in which Hirvisaari referred to the Green League and the Left Alliance “homo parties”.
      Hirvisaari told Helsingin Sanomat that he could also have called them “rainbow parties”.
Reacting to Hirvisaari’s comments, Outi Hannula, chairwoman of the Finnish gay rights organisation SETA, said to Helsingin Sanomat that the MP seems to have a need to question what homosexuality is.
      “In what day does seeing homosexuality as a developmental disability differ from labelling it as an illness? It seems that this is an attempt to label a person as deviant and unnatural.”
      Nevertheless, Hannula also said that she actually agrees with Hirvisaari’s view that that it is wrong to discriminate a person because of sexual orientation. “However, it does not sound credible, if in the next sentence he labels homosexuals as strange and deviant”, Hannula adds.”
     
In his Facebook update Hirvisaari made reference to a blog entry written by the chairman of the Green League’s youth organisation on Monday on issues of LGBT rights.
      “Perhaps polygamy, incest, animal sodomy and many other kinky things might fit beneath the rainbow”, Hirvisaari wrote to Helsingin Sanomat.
     
MP Lasse Männistö (Nat. Coalition Party) contated Helsingin Sanomat to comment on Hirvisaari’s latest outpourings.
      ”It is inconceivable if Hirvisaari sees things as he writes. I have not heard that he would want to deny those with developmental disabilities the right to marry. After all, he has staunchly opposed marriage for gays”, says Männistö, a strong advocate of gender neutral marriage.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Supreme Court refuses to hear hate speech conviction appeal by Finns Party MP James Hirvisaari (19.6.2012)
  MP James Hirvisaari fined for hate speech (12.12.2011)

See also:
  Hirvisaari suspended from Finns Party parliamentary group until September (18.4.2012)
  Finns Party MP´s aide under fire for blog entry suggesting arm bands for foreigners (16.4.2012)

Helsingin Sanomat