Ombudsman for Equality

The Finnish Equality Act and gender variant people

The Finnish Equality Act and the Finnish Non-Discrimination Act currently include no anti-discrimination provisions regarding gender variant people. In its report issued in connection with amending the Finnish Equality Act in 2005, the Employment and Equality Committee of the Finnish Parliament stated that according to a decision of the European Court of Justice, discrimination on the basis of sex or gender covers discrimination on the basis of sex reassignment as well as discrimination on the basis of a person being male or female. Other ways of protecting gender variant people from discrimination were left open. The Employment and Equality Committee of the Finnish Parliament nevertheless stated that reinforcing the protection of gender variant people from discrimination and determining whether the issue should be covered by the Finnish Equality Act or the Finnish Non-Discrimination Act are amongst future priorities.

The anti-discrimination provisions of the Constitution of Finland also cover cases where persons are being discriminated against because they belong to a gender minority. The guidelines of the Finnish Ombudsman for Equality are based on the premise that at least until the anti-discrimination protection of gender variant people is clearly established by law, the Finnish Equality Act should be interpreted so as to also apply more broadly to gender variant people and not just to persons who have undergone sex reassignment surgery. The Finnish Ombudsman for Equality has stated that the Finnish Equality Act should be amended as soon as possible to also cover gender variant people.

Gender variant people are vulnerable to discrimination in the workplace, in educational institutions, and in the provision of various goods and services. The position of gender variant people is also problematic in other ways that need to be addressed. The Finnish Ombudsman for Equality is called on to comment on these matters more and more often. The pressure is on to factor in gender variant people in the equality policy of the Finnish Government, and to explore practical measures for improving the position of gender variant people in different administrative sectors. Employers and educational institutions can already introduce measures to prevent discrimination against gender variant people and to improve conditions for work and study by including gender minorities in their equality plans.

Gender diversity

The binary gender system where people are categorised as either male or female fails to take into account the diversity of gender and the ways in which gender can be experienced. Not everyone has an identity or physical appearance of simply ‘male’ or ‘female’. Gender minorities include, amongst others, transsexuals, transvestites, transgender people and intersexuals.

Transsexual people do not identify themselves with the sex that they were designated at birth and the gender that they were brought up with. Transsexuals feel that their psychological gender identity is in contrast with their physical sexual attributes. In practice this means that biological females see themselves as male or biological males see themselves as female. This conflict can be treated medically with the help of hormones, or corrected by surgery to match a person’s physical attributes to their perceived gender identity. However, medical sex reassignment treatment is not always available or is otherwise an unattractive option.

The sex reassignment process is a phase in a transsexual person’s life where he or she receives medical treatment for sex reassignment, changes his or her legal sex designation and name, and learns to live as a member of society in accordance with his or her own gender identity over a period of several years.

Transvestites are people who want to express the other side of their personality as either male or female. The majority of transvestites are men who occasionally want to bring out their feminine side by adopting the dress and persona of a woman.

Transgender is an umbrella term used to describe people who see themselves as being between male and female. Some transgender people may think of themselves as falling outside the gender binary or as entirely genderless, while others see themselves as unique combinations of male and female characteristics, style and personality. Some transgender people require the same kind of treatments as transsexual people to get their bodies to match their gender identity.

Intersexuality is a congenital condition involving atypical combinations of the physical features that usually distinguish male from female. Approximately 20 intersex babies are born in Finland every year. If carried out too early and without consulting the intersex child, sex designation and corrective surgery may lead to a conflicted gender identity and ultimately to sex reassignment.