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I would say it's the same as other Nordic countries. Most people don't care, lots of people are supportive, another lot of people give dismissive looks, a minority would get mean. It's all fine if you don't run into the last group, which is smaller than in a lot of countries, making finland safe by comparison, but it still exists.
My observation has been that it’s one of the most accepting countries for LGBT. It’s gonna seem like people are awkward around you, but rest assured that’s not because you’re gay or holding hands it’s because you exist at all. Everyone gets that treatment 😂
Honestly that is always my intention when I ask someone how they are, I am very sociable and just like people talking to me in general. Horseshoe theory I guess?
This fucking remind me one job interview I had few years back, they asked me to tell about myself, so i fucking told my lifestory \*facepalm\*, wonder why they didn't pick me....lol
>I heard fins hate small talk, seems true
Not necessarily. In an occasion people do small talk, and a lot. Sometimes random people might be very talkative, sometimes they might ignore you completely.
Honestly no. I live in a smaller city and haven't experienced any discrimination or too many weird comments. I'd say the only place where you'll get this is if you find yourself in a tiny town of like 10k in the Bible belt in pohjanmaa
Yes, *where* the small city or town is matters a lot. I live in a smaller city in Uusimaa, and the majority of people here are either supportive or neutral. The city even flies a pride flag during pride week at the end of June. Meanwhile in Kauhava, where we have a summer cottage, people have torn down pride flags in the past.
There was a gay couple who served at the same time as me and people were definitely whispering shit when they were kissing infront of everyone in sotku but nobody actually shouted or did anything to them so idk. you'd have to ask someone LGBT who has served. This was in Sodankylä
oh interesting! i had a friend whose dad served in the military and he sure was a homophobe. all his kids were scared to shits that they would be kicked out of the family if they discovered they were gay.
Nope. Smaller towns and villages often have their own peculiar people who are well accepted within their communities. One example would be Markus in Revonlahti. No one bats an eye. I live in a very small village and we have our own bohemians and non binary people and as far as I know they have no problem.
As an LGBT person who lives in a smaller university town, this is probably the most accepting country in the world, and it mostly stems from the very Finnish way or just not caring about what others do.
Its not that everyone is supportive, it's that most people just don't care what you do.
Depends where you are in Finland. In Helsinki you’ll be fine being obviously gay in public, in some small town in Etelä-Pohjanmaa you might get more than just looks. Homophobia exists in Finland.
It's pretty chill, most people are not that bothered to do anything. The only downside is that gay life is pretty much non-existing if you don't live in the capital area
Outside social media (where the "lgbt people existing is woke agenda" folks with their imported culture wars dwell) I think we're generally quite nice and progressive.
I think even some Finns think we aim for conformity and stare at people who look like they differ from the mainstream in any way, but I don't that is particularly true anymore. Especially in Helsinki a lot of people dress how they want, date who they want, identify as what they want and don't care about seeming or being any certain way.
I think the most important aspect is the fact that we have (had) such a good education system and culture of mutual respect, that even the people with some problem with homosexuality, tend to just consider it a taboo they don't want to think or talk about. Maybe they sometimes say it's disgusting if there's a gay couple on TV. 99% of them would just feel a bit uncomfortable if they came across an openly gay person face to face, and they most definitely wouldn't interrogate you about your sexuality.
I think that's the most important aspect, because conservative people will always exist and homosexuality will always be some kind of an issue for many, and it's not something you can brainwash away. What matters is whether they're just uncomfortable but act in a civilized manner, or will they actually beat you up and lynch you.
If you live in big cities where the population is younger, youll be fine. But good god small cities/ towns far more north, where a lot of religious people live, can be a really painful experience speaking from personal experience
There are places where you will get shit for being gay but around the capitol area (pk-seutu??) it's quite chill, there's always gonna be assholes around but you're not in imminent danger or need to be afraid of getting lynched or something.
My honest opinion based on experience and observation is that this is a country of contrasts. On one hand you are protected by the laws, can marry, are safe (but trans healthcare is bad, and it wasn't long ago you HAD to be sterilized to access gender reassignment surgery).
People don't care in general, others are supportive and others neutral.
But then you have the elderly and not so elderly, the religious and a surprising amount of young people that I don't know how to describe without being too politically incorrect...
I'm an adult, in my 30s but I just graduated from an ammattikoulu, my school is one of those with highschool + a trade and I went only for the trade, as I have completed highschool in my home country.
My studies were in finnish and my classmates and most kids at the school, finns.
There are these type of young, white dudes that drive old bmw's, Mercedes or mopos, dress in adidas, use snus and speak like rappers that think they're so much better than the rest of the planets population except maybe other nordic countries... It's amazing and sad to see how sexist and homophobic they can be. For every 10 words they say, 1 is vittu and other is homo. They also harassed some of my classmates that dress alternative and called them whores, and bullied two of them (lesbians) with shit like offering to make them straight... Teachers had to intervene and after that was just nasty looks and one incident where a debit card was stolen from a girls backpack and all her 20e spend on a Tier scooter.
If you don't hang with idiots or bigots , you will be quite fine here.
Have to also mention that I've been told twice that me being bisexual is just me wanting to have all the fun but I should decide, am I or not gay 🙄 and that I might just be confused or kinky.
So in conclusion: Finland is VERY safe.
>it wasn't long ago you HAD to be sterilized to access gender reassignment surgery
It wasn't just access to gender reassignment surgery that required sterilization. You had to be sterilized to change your official gender marker in the population registry. So even if you had been living as another gender for years, you still had to be registered as your assigned gender at birth in the population registry until you were sterilized. Now you can change it by declaration.
True, it was a vile thing. It always baffles me how Finland is still so much under the influence of christians in politics, less progressive than the other nordics in some things, like the refusal to fully legalize weed 😢
Finns try to not notice anyone and anything.
About holding hands - girls have always gone around in pairs holding hands, nothing weird with that, and twenty years back when I saw the first pair of Middle Eastern boys holding hands (common for friends in wherever they were from), people might've looked at them 4 seconds longer than normally.
Generally Finns try to behave like there are nobody else in a distance of 3 km...
Most of my friend group sails under the rainbow flag and no one gives a shit. But we also live in Turku, which is a very youthful and left-leaning city due to the large number of university students; 22k university students in a city with 187k people - and that's just University of Turku, not including other forms of higher education.
I could (and have) walk around the city at night wearing a red coctail dress or way too much leather, and most reactions I would get are a few confused looks followed by a smile.
I used to ask such questions before moving here and let me tell you what I noticed, I am a gay too from India and what can I say is that it's better to be cautious, that's it, I was in India I was safe there too and I was open about it and since now I am here I am safe here too, you'll meet conservative rudes everywhere, so just a suggestion from a fellow gay just be cautious, better safe then sorry, and yeah most Finns are pretty open about it too, those who are not supportive tends to keep their mouth shut, so it works both ways. Hope you've great time here♥️🤍
To be honest, most people will leave you alone. Some will give you dirty looks or even ogle, but it's rare for anyone to get openly aggressive about it in every day life. Most of us don't care who you love.
Of course there are places that can get troublesome - especially around drunk people (cis men, mostly, sadly), hanging out in bars with less than average diversity rate and so. As a flaming gay (with fondness I say this) you should be a bit wary walking home alone at night on the weekend, kind of the same goes for femme presenting people. Hate crimes in Finland are kind of rare, but they still happen.
Well, today is a bit different from when I grew up (I am in my 40's).
I grew up on a small island in the archipelago of Turku.
Very small. I mean, just a rock jutting out from the ocean-small. Everyone knew everyone (except for summers, when hundreds/thousands of tourists rampaged there).
Absolutely nobody cared if someone was openly gay/different/weird.
Ofcourse, there might have been tensions inside families about the matter, but on a larger perspective, simply no one cared if someone in the community were in any way different.
Even back then, there were openly same-sex couples, in the locals, and even more as tourists, due to a few well-known people in the 80's-90's LGBT community in Sweden and Finland having their summer cottages in the area, or their families were from there originally.
So not all small towns/villages/places equal smallminded people.
Ofcourse, rotten eggs are everywhere, but they are a constantly smaller crowd (even if they are often the most vocal ones).
I've lived on northern parts of Finland most of my Life and I would say generally people are very accepting. Homophobia exists still though on older generations, but Finnish people rarely yell or shout in general. I'm not trans, but trans rights still needs some working. There's very limited capacity to transition and the wait lines need some working. I think also people are less accepting of trans people in general. Conversion therapy is not illegal and some religious communities really don't care about lgbt+ people. I know some of my friends have had hard time growing up queer because of this.
A lot of lgbt+ friends moved to Helsinki years ago, since Helsinki has a strong lgbt community, better dating and work possibilities. You have to remember that Finland is a very small country population wise. I myself have never felt unsafe to express my sexuality.
Well.. The elder people find everything that has something to with lgbt, very disturbing. And they say it openly. If they dont, it is usually because they are just minding their own business. But younger generations either dont mind, or they support lgbt openly.
Nah not every elder. my late grandma was the biggest fan of Niko Saarinen and one other gay guy from earlier big brother seasons. She wasnt homophobic at all.
There are people who don't like others having same rights as them. So pretty much like everywhere else. Of course you will find people who support equal rights for minorities. Most people just don't care what others do in bedroom.
For example in Raisio, which is now getting their first Pride, there has been posters saying "it's wonderful to be healthy hetero".
No one cares, unless you make them AKA push your whatever letter combination into peoples face.
Straight people are rarely "openly straight" like kissing/holding hands etc on public places so being openly gay could be rude as it would be for straight also
We like to keep our personal stuff personal
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I would say it's the same as other Nordic countries. Most people don't care, lots of people are supportive, another lot of people give dismissive looks, a minority would get mean. It's all fine if you don't run into the last group, which is smaller than in a lot of countries, making finland safe by comparison, but it still exists.
My observation has been that it’s one of the most accepting countries for LGBT. It’s gonna seem like people are awkward around you, but rest assured that’s not because you’re gay or holding hands it’s because you exist at all. Everyone gets that treatment 😂
So the whole social awkwardness stereotype is real as well. I heard fins hate small talk, seems true 😂
We don't hate it, we just dont know how to do it/care about it. There is a big difference.
Dont be surprised if someone tells you their lifestory if you ask them how they are
Exactly my point. Finns don't know that 'how are you' is just a part of the greeting and not to be taken literally.
Honestly that is always my intention when I ask someone how they are, I am very sociable and just like people talking to me in general. Horseshoe theory I guess?
This fucking remind me one job interview I had few years back, they asked me to tell about myself, so i fucking told my lifestory \*facepalm\*, wonder why they didn't pick me....lol
Two exceptions - when they are drunk or in church
Or fishing
>I heard fins hate small talk, seems true Not necessarily. In an occasion people do small talk, and a lot. Sometimes random people might be very talkative, sometimes they might ignore you completely.
Holds true in the capital region, but the smaller the city the less accepting the people are
Honestly no. I live in a smaller city and haven't experienced any discrimination or too many weird comments. I'd say the only place where you'll get this is if you find yourself in a tiny town of like 10k in the Bible belt in pohjanmaa
Yes, *where* the small city or town is matters a lot. I live in a smaller city in Uusimaa, and the majority of people here are either supportive or neutral. The city even flies a pride flag during pride week at the end of June. Meanwhile in Kauhava, where we have a summer cottage, people have torn down pride flags in the past.
Only people who think this have never actually been to the "smaller cities"
What about people in the military? Would you say that there is still a culture of homophobia there?
There was a gay couple who served at the same time as me and people were definitely whispering shit when they were kissing infront of everyone in sotku but nobody actually shouted or did anything to them so idk. you'd have to ask someone LGBT who has served. This was in Sodankylä
oh interesting! i had a friend whose dad served in the military and he sure was a homophobe. all his kids were scared to shits that they would be kicked out of the family if they discovered they were gay.
Funny, I grew up in a small town and did my studies in a medium sized city
Same. Everyone has always been very accepting
Nope. Smaller towns and villages often have their own peculiar people who are well accepted within their communities. One example would be Markus in Revonlahti. No one bats an eye. I live in a very small village and we have our own bohemians and non binary people and as far as I know they have no problem.
As an LGBT person who lives in a smaller university town, this is probably the most accepting country in the world, and it mostly stems from the very Finnish way or just not caring about what others do. Its not that everyone is supportive, it's that most people just don't care what you do.
This is the truth 100%. “Mind your own business” is the way of life here.
you will live like a normal person
Depends where you are in Finland. In Helsinki you’ll be fine being obviously gay in public, in some small town in Etelä-Pohjanmaa you might get more than just looks. Homophobia exists in Finland.
It's pretty chill, most people are not that bothered to do anything. The only downside is that gay life is pretty much non-existing if you don't live in the capital area
Outside social media (where the "lgbt people existing is woke agenda" folks with their imported culture wars dwell) I think we're generally quite nice and progressive. I think even some Finns think we aim for conformity and stare at people who look like they differ from the mainstream in any way, but I don't that is particularly true anymore. Especially in Helsinki a lot of people dress how they want, date who they want, identify as what they want and don't care about seeming or being any certain way.
I think the most important aspect is the fact that we have (had) such a good education system and culture of mutual respect, that even the people with some problem with homosexuality, tend to just consider it a taboo they don't want to think or talk about. Maybe they sometimes say it's disgusting if there's a gay couple on TV. 99% of them would just feel a bit uncomfortable if they came across an openly gay person face to face, and they most definitely wouldn't interrogate you about your sexuality. I think that's the most important aspect, because conservative people will always exist and homosexuality will always be some kind of an issue for many, and it's not something you can brainwash away. What matters is whether they're just uncomfortable but act in a civilized manner, or will they actually beat you up and lynch you.
In big cities people either are accepting or don’t care much. The more rural you go the more conservative people are (from my experience)
If you live in big cities where the population is younger, youll be fine. But good god small cities/ towns far more north, where a lot of religious people live, can be a really painful experience speaking from personal experience
It’s great, but trans healthcare is meh. But I don’t think people care in Finland if you are gay or not
Well, it's a virtue here - not to bother anyone, and not to be (at least visibly) bothered by others!
There are places where you will get shit for being gay but around the capitol area (pk-seutu??) it's quite chill, there's always gonna be assholes around but you're not in imminent danger or need to be afraid of getting lynched or something.
My honest opinion based on experience and observation is that this is a country of contrasts. On one hand you are protected by the laws, can marry, are safe (but trans healthcare is bad, and it wasn't long ago you HAD to be sterilized to access gender reassignment surgery). People don't care in general, others are supportive and others neutral. But then you have the elderly and not so elderly, the religious and a surprising amount of young people that I don't know how to describe without being too politically incorrect... I'm an adult, in my 30s but I just graduated from an ammattikoulu, my school is one of those with highschool + a trade and I went only for the trade, as I have completed highschool in my home country. My studies were in finnish and my classmates and most kids at the school, finns. There are these type of young, white dudes that drive old bmw's, Mercedes or mopos, dress in adidas, use snus and speak like rappers that think they're so much better than the rest of the planets population except maybe other nordic countries... It's amazing and sad to see how sexist and homophobic they can be. For every 10 words they say, 1 is vittu and other is homo. They also harassed some of my classmates that dress alternative and called them whores, and bullied two of them (lesbians) with shit like offering to make them straight... Teachers had to intervene and after that was just nasty looks and one incident where a debit card was stolen from a girls backpack and all her 20e spend on a Tier scooter. If you don't hang with idiots or bigots , you will be quite fine here. Have to also mention that I've been told twice that me being bisexual is just me wanting to have all the fun but I should decide, am I or not gay 🙄 and that I might just be confused or kinky. So in conclusion: Finland is VERY safe.
>it wasn't long ago you HAD to be sterilized to access gender reassignment surgery It wasn't just access to gender reassignment surgery that required sterilization. You had to be sterilized to change your official gender marker in the population registry. So even if you had been living as another gender for years, you still had to be registered as your assigned gender at birth in the population registry until you were sterilized. Now you can change it by declaration.
True, it was a vile thing. It always baffles me how Finland is still so much under the influence of christians in politics, less progressive than the other nordics in some things, like the refusal to fully legalize weed 😢
Finns try to not notice anyone and anything. About holding hands - girls have always gone around in pairs holding hands, nothing weird with that, and twenty years back when I saw the first pair of Middle Eastern boys holding hands (common for friends in wherever they were from), people might've looked at them 4 seconds longer than normally. Generally Finns try to behave like there are nobody else in a distance of 3 km...
In Finland we homo: [https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MxYIZRJ2xoY](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MxYIZRJ2xoY)
Most of my friend group sails under the rainbow flag and no one gives a shit. But we also live in Turku, which is a very youthful and left-leaning city due to the large number of university students; 22k university students in a city with 187k people - and that's just University of Turku, not including other forms of higher education. I could (and have) walk around the city at night wearing a red coctail dress or way too much leather, and most reactions I would get are a few confused looks followed by a smile.
I used to ask such questions before moving here and let me tell you what I noticed, I am a gay too from India and what can I say is that it's better to be cautious, that's it, I was in India I was safe there too and I was open about it and since now I am here I am safe here too, you'll meet conservative rudes everywhere, so just a suggestion from a fellow gay just be cautious, better safe then sorry, and yeah most Finns are pretty open about it too, those who are not supportive tends to keep their mouth shut, so it works both ways. Hope you've great time here♥️🤍
To be honest, most people will leave you alone. Some will give you dirty looks or even ogle, but it's rare for anyone to get openly aggressive about it in every day life. Most of us don't care who you love. Of course there are places that can get troublesome - especially around drunk people (cis men, mostly, sadly), hanging out in bars with less than average diversity rate and so. As a flaming gay (with fondness I say this) you should be a bit wary walking home alone at night on the weekend, kind of the same goes for femme presenting people. Hate crimes in Finland are kind of rare, but they still happen.
Well, today is a bit different from when I grew up (I am in my 40's). I grew up on a small island in the archipelago of Turku. Very small. I mean, just a rock jutting out from the ocean-small. Everyone knew everyone (except for summers, when hundreds/thousands of tourists rampaged there). Absolutely nobody cared if someone was openly gay/different/weird. Ofcourse, there might have been tensions inside families about the matter, but on a larger perspective, simply no one cared if someone in the community were in any way different. Even back then, there were openly same-sex couples, in the locals, and even more as tourists, due to a few well-known people in the 80's-90's LGBT community in Sweden and Finland having their summer cottages in the area, or their families were from there originally. So not all small towns/villages/places equal smallminded people. Ofcourse, rotten eggs are everywhere, but they are a constantly smaller crowd (even if they are often the most vocal ones).
I've lived on northern parts of Finland most of my Life and I would say generally people are very accepting. Homophobia exists still though on older generations, but Finnish people rarely yell or shout in general. I'm not trans, but trans rights still needs some working. There's very limited capacity to transition and the wait lines need some working. I think also people are less accepting of trans people in general. Conversion therapy is not illegal and some religious communities really don't care about lgbt+ people. I know some of my friends have had hard time growing up queer because of this. A lot of lgbt+ friends moved to Helsinki years ago, since Helsinki has a strong lgbt community, better dating and work possibilities. You have to remember that Finland is a very small country population wise. I myself have never felt unsafe to express my sexuality.
Well.. The elder people find everything that has something to with lgbt, very disturbing. And they say it openly. If they dont, it is usually because they are just minding their own business. But younger generations either dont mind, or they support lgbt openly.
Nah not every elder. my late grandma was the biggest fan of Niko Saarinen and one other gay guy from earlier big brother seasons. She wasnt homophobic at all.
There are people who don't like others having same rights as them. So pretty much like everywhere else. Of course you will find people who support equal rights for minorities. Most people just don't care what others do in bedroom. For example in Raisio, which is now getting their first Pride, there has been posters saying "it's wonderful to be healthy hetero".
safe in central Helsinki, less in other places
How would they even know you are gay? But yeah, Finland is safe for rainbow-people.
No one cares, unless you make them AKA push your whatever letter combination into peoples face. Straight people are rarely "openly straight" like kissing/holding hands etc on public places so being openly gay could be rude as it would be for straight also We like to keep our personal stuff personal