Finland marriage law to take effect in 2017

Finnish President Sauli Niinisto signed a bill Friday that will allow same-sex couples in Finland to marry. The legislation, which will take effect in 2017, makes Finland the last Scandinavian country to legalize marriage equality. More than 167,000 Finnish citizens signed a petition to demand that lawmakers take up the issue, over three times the minimum requirement for parliamentary review. The bill is the first such publicly backed proposal to become law.