Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
CONVICTED FOR DEFENDING MARRIAGE – AND BRITAIN IS FOLLOWING...
Dear marriage supporter,
Dr Päivi Räsänen is a Finnish MP, a former Minister of the Interior, mother of five and grandmother of twelve. On 26 March 2026 the Finnish Supreme Court convicted her of “hate speech” over a 24-page pamphlet she wrote in 2004 setting out Christian teaching on marriage and human sexuality. The vote was 3-2. The court ordered the statements be “removed from public access and destroyed”. I sat down with her recently. Our full conversation is here:
For seven years Finnish prosecutors have hounded her. The Helsinki District Court acquitted her unanimously in 2022. The Court of Appeal acquitted her unanimously in 2023. The state appealed again. This March the Supreme Court acquitted her on a 2019 tweet quoting Romans 1, but convicted her over the 2004 pamphlet ‘Male and Female He Created Them’.
Long before the verdict, Päivi sat through more than thirteen hours of police interrogation. Three times the officers asked whether she would withdraw her writings and apologise. Three times she refused. “I will stand behind these teachings… I will not apologise”, she tells me.
Her twelve grandchildren are her allies, and three more are on the way. The eldest is thirteen. They follow the news. They have prayed for her and supported her through every interrogation and every hearing. They have told her: “Grandma, marriage is just for one man and one woman.”
She has been watching Britain. “I have been terrified following what has happened in the UK”, she says. In addition to the many UK cases C4M highlights, our political process is not immune. On 29 April the Liberal Democrats admitted in the County Court they had unlawfully discriminated against their former candidate David Campanale, because he believes marriage is the exclusive union of one man and one woman – a belief the party said “conflicted with” its “fundamental values”. The chilling effect is not coming, it is already here.
Päivi has a direct warning: “The more we are silent, the narrower becomes the space... courage brings courage.”
She is 66 years old, in her eighth term of parliament, and is seeing if she can take her case all the way to the European Court of Human Rights. She is not stopping.
The lifelong union of one man and one woman is the gold standard for families and society. That is what Coalition for Marriage was founded to champion. It is the truth Dr Räsänen has been fined for putting on paper. It is the truth her grandchildren tell her. Millions in the UK believe it too. C4M exist to ensure that our rights to say so are not removed.
If you are not yet supporting C4M financially, please help us defend marriage and the family by clicking the donate button at c4m.org.uk
Dr Tony Rucinski
facebook.com/coalition4marriage
CONVICTED FOR DEFENDING MARRIAGE – AND BRITAIN IS FOLLOWING...
Dear marriage supporter,
Dr Päivi Räsänen is a Finnish MP, a former Minister of the Interior, mother of five and grandmother of twelve. On 26 March 2026 the Finnish Supreme Court convicted her of “hate speech” over a 24-page pamphlet she wrote in 2004 setting out Christian teaching on marriage and human sexuality. The vote was 3-2. The court ordered the statements be “removed from public access and destroyed”. I sat down with her recently. Our full conversation is here:
For seven years Finnish prosecutors have hounded her. The Helsinki District Court acquitted her unanimously in 2022. The Court of Appeal acquitted her unanimously in 2023. The state appealed again. This March the Supreme Court acquitted her on a 2019 tweet quoting Romans 1, but convicted her over the 2004 pamphlet ‘Male and Female He Created Them’.
Long before the verdict, Päivi sat through more than thirteen hours of police interrogation. Three times the officers asked whether she would withdraw her writings and apologise. Three times she refused. “I will stand behind these teachings… I will not apologise”, she tells me.
Her twelve grandchildren are her allies, and three more are on the way. The eldest is thirteen. They follow the news. They have prayed for her and supported her through every interrogation and every hearing. They have told her: “Grandma, marriage is just for one man and one woman.”
She has been watching Britain. “I have been terrified following what has happened in the UK”, she says. In addition to the many UK cases C4M highlights, our political process is not immune. On 29 April the Liberal Democrats admitted in the County Court they had unlawfully discriminated against their former candidate David Campanale, because he believes marriage is the exclusive union of one man and one woman – a belief the party said “conflicted with” its “fundamental values”. The chilling effect is not coming, it is already here.
Päivi has a direct warning: “The more we are silent, the narrower becomes the space... courage brings courage.”
She is 66 years old, in her eighth term of parliament, and is seeing if she can take her case all the way to the European Court of Human Rights. She is not stopping.
The lifelong union of one man and one woman is the gold standard for families and society. That is what Coalition for Marriage was founded to champion. It is the truth Dr Räsänen has been fined for putting on paper. It is the truth her grandchildren tell her. Millions in the UK believe it too. C4M exist to ensure that our rights to say so are not removed.
If you are not yet supporting C4M financially, please help us defend marriage and the family by clicking the donate button at c4m.org.uk
Dr Tony Rucinski
facebook.com/coalition4marriage
