That is what the Swedes say. Or actually one Swedish publisher namely Stefan Ingvarsson in his blog in Aftonbladet. According to Ingvarsson Moomintroll and Snufkin are lovers, while Snork Maiden is their fag-hag. They have a difficult relationship as Moomintroll is monogamous while Snufkin is an anarchist who leaves on his trips to the south (sex vacations on Pattaya?) and abandons Moomintroll who gets upset if he doesn’t return in time.  I could have my dirty mind go on with the function of Hattifatteners, not with Moomintroll though as everyone knows Moomins are so fat because while they eat all the time Tove Jansson forgot to draw them an asshole. Hemulen also is an evident cross-dressing gay as he wears a purple gown.

I can’t really fathom where do people get all this latent homophobia from. I can understand someone going after Teletubbies as they’re so darn annoying, but the Moomins! Couldn’t they just leave childrens’ books alone for crying out loud? Though the original cartoons were quite anarchistic and the moomins weren’t all that “for children only” smoking dope and whatnot… but still. And yes, Tove Jansson lived with a woman so what?

Moomintroll:”I woke up at night and couldn’t sleep”
Little My:”ha ha”
Moomintroll:”What are you implying?”
Little My:”I know what you were doing, I was awake too.”
Moomintroll:*gulp*
Little My:”You were with Snufkin.”

It seems that the discussions of allowing women to be priests in the Finnish Evangelic-Lutheran Church get a wholly new aspect when the vicar of Imatra announced he was going for reassignment surgery.

Olli Aalto, the Lutheran Vicar of Imatra, says that he has struggled with his gender identity for almost all of his 54 years. The struggle is now coming to an end. Aalto will take a leave of absence at the beginning of the year, during which time he will undergo and other procedures surgery to become a woman. Aalto says that the matter has been a cause for concern “ever since I was a little girl”.

The bishop and the wardens snorted their coffee, but apparently Finland isn’t quite the backwater as it is always claimed to be. The public opinion is rather supportive, even the more conservative members of the Church surely do have strong opinions.

I always *love* it when Finland gets into international news. Well, this time over the issue was boiling hot domestically and no wonder. The HS international Edition basic description of the events. Basically, a new editor-in-chief Johanna Korhonen, was hired to the Eastern Lapland regional newspaper Lapin Kansa which is published by a big Finnish publishing house Alma Media. And she was fired before she started in her job the reason being given there was a “lack of trust”   Well, the lady in question, who has been among other things the editor-in-chief of the newspaper of the Finnish Union of Journalists cried “foul” and stated in a press release she got sacked because she is living in a registered partnership with a woman.  The CEO of Alma Media Kai Telanne stated that the reason of course is not that, nothing discriminatory etcetera, but the fact that her partner is active in municipal politics while the editor should be politically nonaligned and the CEO said she had been fired for lying in her job interview, and she is just using the lesbian card.

And everybody thought in the traditional Finnish manner the issue would be brushed under the carpet.

Oops, not quite so… today had the Alma Media board of directors publishing a very curt statement of how they stand behind the CEO and do not want to discuss issues “that do not belong in the public”. Laughing my ass off as Alma Media publishes the worst scandal tabloid Iltalehti…

So what is the opinion - the current editor-in-chief of Lapin Kansa stated that an “while nobody asks what people do in their private lives as long as they keep int the closet an openly gay person would find it difficult to act as the editor-in-chief as the newspaper represents the region”.  Well, the region represented nor the newspaper doesn’t wish to be labelled as a redneck bible-belt hickdom it seems. The editors of the Lapin Kansa newspaper have demanded the CEO of Alma Media quits and is removed from the board of Lapin Kansa, The Lapland University’s women studies researchers has started rallying a boycott against Alma Media and its been said people have been canceling their subscriptions. The opinion is still out whether what Korhonen alleges is true - if it is then this is one of the most blatant discrimination cases to pop up.

Legal experts and journalists have come forth stating that personal issues should not be taken up in job interviews, and that as each person is responsible for themselves it is unfair to have some persons job depending on their spouses political activity. The government has stated that the issue should be investigated thoroughly - there was a debate but the government wanted facts as the situation is unclear. Meanwhile the biggest shareholder, a private investor stated that the “publicity is good” and that Alma Media stocks are on the rise. The Nordic newspapers also picked up on the story, especially the Danes as they have also a holding in Alma Media.

Yay! Publicity!  It seems that anything that is said or done in this case will cause another crap sandwich to appear in the lunchbox.

EDIT: 3.10 update HS International Edition of the new developments

So many people lately have written about the macho male culture in Finland. So I have to agree, we have the best looking men as the HS writes

The drag duo Showhat is going to be on tour this autumn. Bring some brutal burlesque into the doom and gloom!