I want to tell you about my friends. Let’s call them Jay and Kay. Jay and Kay are a couple and they live together. Life is nice, just normal everyday stuff. They sometimes fight, Jay has a hard time telling what Jay wants and Kay sometimes doesn’t understand that. Sometimes Kay needs some space and Jay understands that. They’re thinking of babies, you know, not now, but some day. They want to get married, make a special day just for the two of them.

You probably know a lot of Jays and Kays, just normal couples, but with a special relationship. What makes their relationship special are the two individuals, their dreams, their past and future, not their gender.

Finland as a country is at a crossroads. The Tahdon-campaign ('tahdon' meaning 'I do'), that collected names for an initiative to make same-sex marriage legal in Finland, got 167 333 signatures by September 19, 2013. That’s 167 333 individuals who think that it doesn’t matter what gender Kay and Jay are, they should be able to celebrate their love and be equal to people who can get married. When we’ve talked about this, I sometimes look at my own boyfriend and think, “What makes us so special?” I mean all relationships are special, but there’s nothing special about one couple compared to another couple.

This question has been raised in the Finnish media a lot during this year, but I’m going to ask it one more time: Why shouldn’t two adults who are in love and who are doing this freely be legally able to commit to each other? And I don’t mean just register their relationship, but to get married.

What gives me hope is that the initiative actually collected so many names and because of the Finland’s Citizen’s Initiative Act, the parliament must address it. This has already stirred some controversy inside the parliament, The Finns Party’s (Perussuomalaiset) leader told his group to vote against the initiative, although in these kinds of matters, freedom of conscience is in effect and all parliament members should be able to vote as they seem fit, not according to what their party thinks.

This parliament period has been one of disappointments. The economic climate, has politicians cutting budgets of schools and kindergartens, as well as tampering with student allowance. But this initiative gives me hope that the government could do something that is modern, humane and equal. Like a song that concerns this issue says:

“And a certificate on paper Isn't gonna solve it all But it's a damn good place to start”

With these thoughts, the whole of BTSB wants to wish you a political and happy autumn, and also an awesome Halloween! We are very proud to present our new writers Zania, Elizabeth, Hanna, Ile and Inka. This month you can learn about interesting things, such as Thespians Anonymous, DJ Shadow and Oculus Rift. Also, take break from you hectic life and ponder student politics, the apocalypse, pain and skating, and the make-up industry with our writers. This and much more in this month’s BTSB!

Also, don’t forget to order the best and cutest overall patch ever to exist! Read more on our patch ad.

Yours truly,

Kaisa Leino

Editor in Chief