Seta ry – English

Seta ry – English

English

Support us!

News

Sign up your program for the Queer History Month!

The Queer History Month is organized for the first time ever in Finland during 20.10-20.11.2018. The month is coordinated by Seta ry and Culture for All.

The history and cultural heritage of Finnish sexual and gender minorities is made visible during the month by several central cultural and memory organizations.

Participants in the Queer History Month includes for example the Labor Archives, the Finnish Labour Museum Werstas, Aine Art Museum, Ateneum Art Museum, AV Arkki, Finnish Literature Society, Goethe Institute, Helsinki City Museum, National Museum, National Theater, Swedish Literature Society in Finland and Yle Elävä Arkisto / Archive.

Seta ry and Culture for all welcome all memory organizations and art institutions, schools and associations as well as private individuals to participate in the celebration of the Queer History Month. The purpose of the month is to review Finnish history and culture from a queerperspective and include the queer story in our common cultural heritage. The program during the Queer History Month inlcudes among others an event queer history within the theatre world, a history event about the work for LGBT rights in the Parliament and Setas remembrance evening aimde for rainbow seniors.

Organizations, schools and individuals can participate in the Queer History Month through for example by:

1. sharing material and images associated with queer history on social media with the hashtags #sateenkaarihistoriakuukausi #queerhistoriskmånad #queerhistorymonth

2. Organize discussions, seminars and exhibitions in connection with the history of LGBT. Tools and ideas for queering culture events can be found here (in Finnish and Swedish). 

Register your own program for the Queer History Month program! The information about events is gathered by Seta, you can register using this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd0MdvO8-eX0NnETs9kinUkYG1YAIvRAowHnYKK6vr_jG8n-A/viewform

Seta ry and Culture for All will spread information about these events through their own channels.

3. By offering LGBT-related materials to archives and network services for collecting memories for example by submitting or sharing memories through the @Unohtumattomat hetket -Facebookpage or webpage. Another similar online service for memory gathering i Muistikko.

The last week of the Queer History Month is dedicated to gender diversity and transgender persons. The month ends 20.11.2018 with the Transgender Day of Remembrance.

Seta brings all program together on the website: https://seta.fi/historiakuukausi/. On the site will be a calendar, where all the Queer History Month program are available. Seta makes at least two FB updates of each event. In addition, the events are included in Seta’s newsletter and in the news Seta’s webpages. 

More information

Rita Paqvalén, 040–6743528, rita.paqvalen@cultureforall.fi / www.cultureforall.fi

Kerttu Tarjamo, 050 309 8108, paasihteeri@seta.fi / www.seta.fi

Apply to Seta’s international affairs committee

Are you interested in lgbtiq human rights issues internationally? Would you like to work with other lgbtiq activists and experts with passion towards international lgbtiq-questions? Apply to Seta’s international affairs committee!
Seta’s international affairs committee has previously i.e. met with authorities and activists from other countries, paid attention to acute country situations and organised discussions.
The international affairs committee supports Seta’s board regarding international affairs. In 2018 the committee can i.e.
– observe the development of lgbtiq people’s human rights globally and call attention to violations of lgbtiq people’s rights in different countries
–participate in supporting lgbtiq activists and organisations especially in nearby regions.  
Members of the committee are volunteers and do not receive a payment for their work. The committee will hold few meetings and also work via e-mails. Skype-participation at the meetings is possible.
You can apply to the committee by filling up an electronic application latest on 12 January 2018.
More information Secretary General Kerttu Tarjamo, 050 309 8108, paasihteeri@seta.fi

Have you experienced or witnessed hate speech or harassment? We invite you to share your experiences!

Dear respondent,

The purpose of our survey is to get more information about hate speech and harassment: What kinds of hate speech or harassment have you experienced or noticed and how has it affected you and your loved ones?  Target groups of this survey are particularly the following minority groups: people whose mother tongue is not Finnish, foreign citizens or persons with immigrant backgrounds, Finnish-Swedish, Finnish Roma, Samis, disabled people, members of sexual and gender minorities, and members of religious minority groups.

By harassment we mean actions such as hurtful speech, e-mail messages, or gestures. By hate speech we mean an expression or speech that is expressed publicly (e.g. in a public place, on the Internet or in the media) with the intent to spread, provoke, maintain or justify hate towards minority groups or other groups of the population. You define what constitutes hate speech or harassment for you; what kinds of expressions or gestures you have found to be hurtful or threatening. For example, such actions may have influenced your feeling of safety.

A similar survey has been carried out in autumn 2015 as part of the activities of the system for monitoring discrimination. The results are published in the “Survey on hate speech and harassment and their influence on different minority groups”-report. The aim of this survey is to show how hate speech and harassment are perceived by different minority groups. Another aim is to produce information about how hate speech and harassment influence feelings of safety among members of different minority groups. The survey is conducted by Owal Group Oy in cooperation with the Finnish Ministry of Justice.

The questionnaire responses will be handled confidentially and they will not be handed over to third parties. The survey report will be prepared in such a manner that no individual respondent can be identified. You can complete the survey questionnaire until 31 December 2017. The questionnaire is available in Finnish, Swedish and English. It will take about 10–20 minutes to complete the questionnaire.

In English: https://www.research.net/r/vipueng

Suomeksi: https://fi.research.net/r/vipu2017

På svenska: https://fi.research.net/r/vipusv

 

For further information about the survey, please contact:

Nita Korhonen, Owal Group Oy           Laura Jauhola, Owal Group Oy

050-5234 889                                 050-443 1841

nita@owalgroup.com                         laura@owalgroup.com

Apply to Seta’s international affairs committee

Are you interested in lgbtiq human rights issues internationally? Would you like to work with other lgbtiq activists and experts with passion towards international lgbtiq-questions? Apply to Seta’s international affairs committee!

The international affairs committee supports Seta’s board regarding international affairs. In 2017 the main responsibilities of the committee are:
– to prepare an action plan for Seta’s international work in the coming years (as required by Seta’s new organizational strategy)
– to plan a support program for the benefit of lgbtiq human rights defenders active in the Finland’s neighboring regions (particularly Russia) (as required by Seta’s program for 2017).

Members of the committee are volunteers and do not receive a payment for their work. The committee will hold few meetings and also work via e-mails. Skype-participation at the meetings is possible.

Send a short application (max. 1 A4 paper) explaining why do you want to join the committee and what kind of relevant experience and interests you have. The applications must be send latest 28 February to Secretary General Kerttu Tarjamo at paasihteeri(at)seta.fi. Remember to include contact information and also please indicate whether your name can be published if you are selected to the committee.

More information, Kerttu Tarjamo, 050 309 8108.

Finnish LGBTIQ+ rights organisations Seta and Trasek to appear at the United Nations Committee Against Torture 59th session: the treatment of trans and intersex people in Finland is cruel, inhuman and degrading

Seta and Trasek demand that the unnecessary and harmful cosmetic surgery done to intersex children is stopped immediately and that the Finnish Trans act is readily reformed to respect the right to self-determination.

The UN Committee Against Torture will review Finland and the realization of its human rights in November. A hearing with NGOs will be held in order to get a precise picture of how Finland ensures the human rights obligations set by the UN convention, where torture and other inhuman treatment is prohibited. Seta and Trasek, who delivered a report on the treatment of trans and intersex people, sends two participants to the session in Geneva November 8th. Amnesty International Finland will also appear in the hearing, and supports the demands presented by Seta and Trasek.

The alarming state of trans youth and the harsh demands of the trans act

A full reform of the trans act, a topic that has sparked intense debate in Finland for years, is one of the central demands of the NGOs, who want a trans act that is based on autonomy and self-determination.

“The current trans act in Finland doesn’t respect the most central human rights. It is simply cruel and inhuman to submit trans people to forced sterilization and years of psychiatric monitoring. To force someone into medical monitoring and have them undergo procedures in order for them to be able to change their name and have their gender legally recognized is humiliating. The trans act needs to be renewed so that it respects the right to self-determination”, says Kasper Kivistö, one of two NGO representatives in Geneva (on the left in the photo).

According to the NGOs, Finland should focus more on the alarming state that the trans youth is in.

“According to studies every second trans youth has to face physical violence, and discrimination and non-physical violence is even more common. Discrimination leads to serious consequences. More than every other trans youth has thought of self-harm and suicide”, says Panda Eriksson, who will attend the Geneva hearing with Kivistö.

“It is regrettably common that teachers, health care staff and parents try to minimize or deny a young trans person’s gender, or feel negatively about their gender identity. This needs to end. Trans youth need psychological and social support. The right to have your name and legal gender marker changed must be secured for adults and youth alike”, says Seta´s Secretary General Kerttu Tarjamo.

The unnecessary surgical treatment of intersex children needs to end

The NGOs also demand that Finland ends the so called “normalizing” surgeries on intersex children, who might not be more than babies or toddlers when they have to undergo genital surgery. Surgery is done on the outer genitalia to have the child’s body fit the ideal that dictates what a boy or a girl body should look like – even when the genitalia are completely functional.

“Intersexualism is part of the multitude found in nature and in gender. It’s not a problem that should be solved with a knife. The unnecessary operations done on children are a grave insult to their physical immunity and often result in problems such as loss of feeling in the genital area or chronic pain. These surgeries have to end immediately. Hormonal treatment, which is used to “steer” the development of gendered characteristics, has to change so that it’s only used with the informed consent and collaboration of the individual in question. A system that operates from above, dictating what a child’s gender should be and how they should experience their own body and their condition, is a human rights problem in every way”, says Terhi Viikki from Trasek.

The UN Committee Against Torture will review the Finnish situation based on reports delivered by the government and by NGOs, as well as by the hearings organized in Geneva. The committee will present the Finnish government with recommendations on the development of human rights within 1-2 months after the hearing.

For further information or interview requests:

Seta’s and Trasek’s report can be found and read: http://seta.fi/cat-2016/

The UN page that features all the documents related to the reviewing of Finland:
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/TreatyBodyExternal/Countries.aspx?CountryCode=FIN&Lang=EN

 

Kerttu Tarjamo
p. +358 50 309 8108
paasihteeri@seta.fi

Panda Eriksson
panda@trasek.fi

Kasper Kivistö
kasper@trasek.fi

Foto: Panda Eriksson (left side) and Kasper Kivistö. Foto Sonja Siikanen.

Trans people are transgender people and non-binary people, among others. Being trans means your gender doesn’t correlate with the gender you were assigned at birth.

Intersexualism refers to a congenital condition where the anatomical or physical features of the body that are usually gendered aren’t unambiguously typically male or typically female.