21st of July, Tampere, Finland. People are gathering on the meeting place of Tampere Pride-march. The weather is good and some 700 people show up which is a pretty good turnout in Tampere. Mood changes a bit, when the spokesperson of Finnish Defence League along with her two goons try to infiltrate the march. People react quickly and block them non-violently from entering the march with banners and shouts. Bemused FDL-activists eventually give up and the march leaves in a festive mood without any fascist elements in it.

So why did FDL seek to join the march? The reason by their own words was to use the Pride march as a Trojan horse and a populistic way to give excuse for their anti-islamic views. Their tactic is to produce nationalistic European identity by picturing an outside threat, a clash of the civilizations, in which abstractions like "our western values", "western Reason" or "our christian foundations" are facing the savage other, the muslims. In their warmongering all muslims are seen as a monolithic entity who represent values that are fundamentally in conflict with "western values." To achieve their goals, they try to use hbltq-people as their pawns and the fear of persecution as their weapon to pinkwash gaypeople against muslims.

BUT THEY SAY THEY ARE ANTI-RASCIST!

FDL, as their counterparts around the Europe, poses as a "non-rasistic" and "non-fascist" organization. As some people categorically believe in fascist lies, we'll present some facts about prominent Finnish Defence League members.

The "FDL security team" that the spokesperson Mimosa de Danann (Milja Koiranen) brought along her consisted of two persons: Kari Halkola and Kimmo Mannermaa. Halkola has applied for the neo-nazi organization Finnish Resistance Movement which was responsible for the gas attack against Helsinki Pride in 2010 in which some 90 Pride participants got assaulted with pepperspray and teargas. After Breivik's massacre in July 2011 Halkola stated on Facebook that he is a “nationalist, racist and right winger” and if that doesn’t please his Facebook friends they can leave him alone. He has also made numerous homophobic and racist comments on Facebook. His partner in “FDL security team” was Kimmo Mannermaa, who has been member of a Facebook group "Curing camps for faggots to Finland". He was also a Facebook friend of “Plastic Adolf”, that was a fansite for Adolf Hitler made by a co-FDL member Klaus Elovaara using the alias Léon Degrelle. The real Léon Degrelle was a member of Waffen SS and later a prominent figure in neo-nazi movements. Klaus Elovaara was actually voted second in the FDL poll for a public spokesperson, Mimosa won the poll. Elovaara has made numerous other comments promoting nazis, antisemitism, Kristallnacht, homophobia etc. He was also the founder of the group "Curing camps for faggots to Finland". He has for example joked a lot about his "friend" Plastic Adolf: … “plastic [Adolf] had stabbed Teuka in the thigh. He said Teukka acted gay.” In 2010 Elovaara was convicted for assaulting his wife. On top of FDL Elovaara is a member of the fascist association “Suomen Sisu” and was a candidate in 2007 parliament elections representing True Finns, which is a nationalist populist party that made a huge gain in votes in the last parliament elections in 2011 rising from 4% to 19% of votes.

This far Finnish Defence League has been only a Facebook joke, which is struggling with poorly written announcements and members who are openly racist and, well, idiots. Their first ever public action was giving a speech in Århus, Denmark, in the European Counter-Jihad meeting in March 2012. The attempt to infiltrate Tampere Pride march was their first public action in Finland and hopefully their last. We have included the original announcement of FDL to participate in Tampere Pride 2012 and one of their comments in the thread about participating. As you can read, the reception for their announcement was not well taken within their group. And as you can see from the video, only three persons showed up for the action. Even other Internet fascists in Finland are laughing at them for their poor knowledge of Finnish language, posting openly racist material and for the american pseudonyms and the English command of their "organization".

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"The participation of FDL in Tampere Pride parade.

The announcement of Finnish Defense League (FDL) to take part in Tampere Pride -parade in the summer of 2012 has gotten a conflicting response. The admin team of FDL has seen participating in the parade necessary for populistic and practical reasons. On the populistic side, let's face it, we will use the event as the same kind of glamorous tolerance excuse as many of our populistic politicians, even ministers and presidents, have used.

The most important thing is that we want to spotlight the conditions of sexual minorities in islam and inform people about the fate of gays in the above-mentioned countries. The gay-commune that sees it self as liberal and multiculturally open-minded has committed a big crime against muslim gays by staying silent about the topic. We hope that by this act we can wake them from their dream so that they realize that real gay-activism is not being horrified by firecrackers thrown by homophobic boozers in the middle of a gay parade*. Real gay-activism should be publicly and openly intervening, without the fear of being labeled as islamophobic, in human rights questions of all sexual minorities globally.

Our aim is not to provoke, but stir discussion.

We all have the right to our own personal opinion about homosexuality or whatever sexually deviant minority, but as long as the sexually motivated act in question is not illegal according to the Finnish law and as long as sexual minorities have the legal right to show them self and their identity, still within the legal and decent context, FDL will respect sexual minorities as FDL will respect Finnish citizens and the Finnish Law.

You can choose yourself if you want to participate or not. We welcome all members to voluntary work: giving out leaflets and educating people about the human rights crimes done against sexual minorities in islamic countries. FDL Security will be present for the safety of our members.

Thank You.

James Gonzo
FDL administration / media & communications"

Posted on the facebook site of FDL on Friday, June 1, 2012.
 https://www.facebook.com/notes/finnish-defence-league-fdl-/fdln-osallistuminen-tampereen-pride-paraatiin/370181429695613?ref=notif&notif_t=note_reply
Retrieved on 19.7.2012

Translators note: We have tried to retain the ridiculous writing style of FDL.

* [Translators note: In 2010 Helsinki Pride -parade was attacked by neo-nazis with pepper spray and tear gas. Three people were arrested and later convicted of 88 assaults and 71 cases of violation of political freedom. One of the convicted persons (Arttu Pylkkänen) is a member of the neo-nazi organization Finnish Resistance Movement, which is a sister organization of the Swedish Resistance Movement.

Three men charged with Helsinki Pride gas attack. Helsingin Sanomat 2011:
www.hs.fi/english/article/Three+men+charged+with+Helsinki+Pride+gas+attack+/1135265848715]

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One comment from FDL Facebook site on the thread about participating in Tampere Pride:

Finnish Defence League (FDL):
You can not always please everyone. With this gay shit we aim only to take pr benefit and spotlight the human rights problems that Seta* and other green-red hippies led by faggots are keeping silent about. Once more: it's legal to be a faggot in Finland so FDL can not condemn people for that.
007 - June 1 at 11:55pm via mobile

* [trans.: the main LGBT rights organisation in Finland.]