Translaki 2019 – Trans law 2019

The Finnish trans law is inhumane, against human rights and full of unnecessary hate towards trans people.

Finnish law requires trans people to show proof of infertility in order to fix their gender marker in official paperwork (example in passport or I.D.). This means sterilisation, so you are not allowed to have a family with children. This is against human rights and has been noticed globally and Finland has received multiple official complaints about this big issue many times. Still the previous governments have nots listened to human rights activest and stopped this human rights violation in Finland.

To learn more about the campaign to gain a humane trans law in Finland in 2019 please follow the official Translaki 2019 Twitter and the Trasek ry websites to learn more. You can also follow Twitter user Julmis blog with very good posts about what the trans rights are in Finland  and why there is need for change.

Transphobia and minority hate in policital campaigns

It seems that we have not gone very far in politics in Finland as campaigns still can have very hateful approaches to minotiries and underrepresented groups.

A few examples:

  • A current candidate and sitting member of parliament from a nationalist true finns party wrote in their campaign that ‘matu’s (short for ‘forceful entrant’ or maahantunkeutuja) should go home’
  • A candidate from the christian democratic party wrote how they are worried about kids being allowed to learn about gender identity, how trans kids are subjected to wrongdoing and how parents are mistreated by the society if they dont allow kids to get support and treatment

Both of these campaign messages had been published in newspapers and social media and it shows how bad the climate is. There were people who made an official complaint to the Finnish marketing board about the un etchical approach to these  campaign ands I hope that they will get a good response. These  campaigns fill the crime requirements for insisting hate towards minority groups in the law and they are illegal.

Are you trans friendly in your candidate campaign?

The time has come for Finnish parliamentary candidates to start their campaigns to fish out potential voters. A lot of promises are made and we know for sure that last year the big politicians promised many educational points while they cut a lot of funding and let down a lot of younger voters.

Are you being trans friendly in your candidate campaign, are you targeting LGBTQIA+ audiences to get the juicy votes?

Please check for the following in your campaign:

  • Do you talk about equality only between men and women? Do you include trans, non-binary, gender neutral, genderless voices?
  • Are you driving better education? Does this include gender sensitivity and awareness for building healthy identities in education?
  • Do you support LGBTQIA+ initiatives, for example better inclusivity in tech? Please look into struggles that minorities are facing e.g. in getting access to treatments, education or equal access to
  • Do you have sensitivity readers for proofreading your inclusive campaign?

If you are unsure and would want to be more inclusive, please reach out to your local LGBTQIA+ group (e.g. SETA in Finland) or someone you know is a professional in the topic close to you. It’s better to ask a lot of questions and learn to be more inclusive even if it takes some learning and mistakes.

Do not be alarmed if people comment on your initiatives and learn from them to be more inclusive. Listen to the minorities who are struggling so you can find a way to help them and create real change in our country that is still screwing on many minorities.

 

Why your sign up forms make me drop your service altogether

I recently mentioned on Twitter (finnish) that I will stop signing up for a service if there are only two gender options for male and female.

There are many good blog posts written about the topic and why service designers should really take care to create more approachable log in forms and sign up forms for their trans users.

This blog post sums it up real well, have a look.

To be non-binary friendly you need a couple of things in place:

  • Understanding that non-binary identities exist
  • Understanding why additional gender and pronoun questions are a bitter piece to swallow for many of trans minorities
  • Questioning the need of a gender question in sign up forms in the first place

So the next time you design sign up forms or log in forms, please think about trans people!

Why I do what I do

Thanks for joining me!

Great thoughts come from spending a lot of time thinking about something. -Some person, maybe

Yeah, I’m not into inspirational quotes. I’m Aure Tauslampi, a 30-something non-binary IT professional, and I’m here to talk about trans / enby rights in Finland. I’m also here to reveal the active discrimination towards minorities in the IT field that span from basic education to professional circles here in Finland.

Continue reading “Why I do what I do” →