Linda Hart vs. transgender people

Linda Hart is a Finnish sociologist and anti-transgender activist. Hart is chair of “gender critical” group Naisten Rintama [Women’s Front] and is associated with anti-trans groups Women’s Declaration International and Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine.

Anti-trans activism

Hart has been active on X/Twitter since 2015, frequently posting anti-trans content. Hart became a leader of Naisten Rintama after it was founded in 2021.

In 2022, Hart provided a statement to the Finnish government about removal of sterilization requirements for legal change of gender in relation to gender self-identification:

First: Gender identity and human rights [“Aluksi: Sukupuoli-identiteetti ja ihmisoikeudet”]

European Court of Human Rights (ECHR): According to the current interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights the requirement of incapacity to reproduce should be removed [“Euroopan ihmisoikeustuomioistuin (EIT): Euroopan ihmisoikeussopimuksen voimassa olevan tulkinnan mukaan lisääntymiskyvyttömyysvaatimus tulee poistaa”]
ECHR does not require subjective self-determination of legal gender [“EIT ei vaadi juridisen sukupuolen subjektiivista itsemäärittelyä”]
ECHR allows a diagnosis of gender dysphoria as a condition for changing legal gender [“EIT sallii sukupuolidysforiadiagnoosin juridisen sukupuolen muuttamisen ehtona”]
ECHR does not require Council of Europe member states to provide legal or other gender correction for minors [“EIT ei edellytä Euroopan neuvoston jäsenvaltioilta juridista tai muuta sukupuolenkorjausta alaikäisille”]

Hart concluded that self-definition on the basis of discrimination (gender/sex) without conditions creates opportunities for strategic behavior and abuse [“Itsemäärittely syrjintäperusteeseen (sukupuoli/sex)) ilman ehtoja luo mahdollisuuksia strategiselle käyttäytymiselle ja väärinkäytöksille”].

Hart also wants to stop trans people from using online resources and bypassing the Finnish public health system entirely.

Hart was announced as a speaker at the 2025 conference by anti-trans hate group Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine. Hart’s topic was “Analysis of Contemporary Human-Rights Discourse in Pediatric Gender Medicine.”

Anti-trans extremist Leor Sapir wrote:

I asked Linda Hart, a liberal Finnish sociologist who closely follows the gender-medicine debate, about Rolfe’s characterization of what happened in her country. “Absolute rubbish!” she said. When COHERE, the body entrusted to assess health-care quality in Finland, issued its guidelines in June 2020, Hart noted, “the chairpersons of the Left Alliance (Li Andersson) and the Greens (Maria Ohisalo), who were ministers in [Prime Minister] Sanna Marin’s Social Democrat government at the time, expressed their disappointment in the guidelines for ‘creating barriers’ and decentralizing psychological support.” Hart emphasized that “politicians cannot direct what [a] body of experts is going to issue as guidelines and cannot change the guidelines.”

In 2025, Hart published an essay in Helsingin Sanomat arguing that “biological sex” needs to be promoted:

Last month, the Confederation of Finnish Women’s Organizations called for a strategy for Finland to combat hate speech and hate crimes that would take into account the subject’s legal gender, gender identity, gender expression and gendered features of the body as motives. The feminist organization did not mention biological, i.e. physical, material and concrete gender, in its statement against hate speech.

[…] In addition to the rainbow organizations, Finnish human rights and women’s organizations and organizations focusing on children’s rights almost unanimously supported during the last parliamentary election period that a minor could change their legal gender. Changing the legal gender designation without gender dysphoria being identified and diagnosed in healthcare is a relatively recent political idea in historical terms. This is now possible for adults. No human rights treaty binding on Finland or its binding interpretation obliges the state to offer minors the opportunity to change their gender designation.

In Finland, this issue was separated from medical treatments. Rainbow organizations both in Finland and elsewhere also seek to promote drug treatments that interfere with the growth and development of gender dysphoric youth. The Greens, the Left Alliance, the deregistered feminist party, and the Women’s Affairs Union, founded by Finnish suffragettes over 130 years ago, have included drug treatments that inhibit puberty in gender dysphoric children among their political goals.

[…] As was seen in the opioid painkiller scandal that shook the United States, a medical scandal does not come to light overnight, but over years and through multiple lawsuits. It is the duty of adults and experts to participate in the public debate and take responsibility for what is happening in society and its institutions.

In 2025, anti-trans activist Kara Dansky posted: “I just learned that @lindahart_intl, a fabulous TERF and researcher in Finland, has been sharing resources from @DIAGdemocrats and @WDI_USA with her colleagues to spread the word about the leftist critique of “gender identity” in the US. Great news!” Hart responded: “Kara is one of the few people I don’t mind calling me a ‘terf’ 😄 (Tired of explaining reality to f……s).”

note: An earlier version of this page misstated Hart’s position on sterilization requirements for gender transition. This site regrets the error.

Coverage in anti-trans press

Sapir, Leor (February 16, 2024). What Happened at MultiCare? City Journal https://www.city-journal.org/article/what-happened-at-multicare

Selected publications

Hart, L. (January 19, 2025). Essee: Sukupuolen käsitteen hämärtäminen luo eettisiä ongelmia [Essay: Blurring the concept of gender creates ethical problems]. Helsingin Sanomat https://www.hs.fi/mielipide/art-2000010964763.html

Hart, L. (2024). Lasten ja nuorten sukupuolidysforian hoidosta tarvitaan lisää tutkittua tietoa–Cass-arviointi päivitti aiheen kansainvälisen tietopohjan [More research is needed on the treatment of gender dysphoria in children and adolescents – Cass review updated the international knowledge base on the topic]. Kasvun Tuki -Aikakauslehti, 4(2). https://doi.org/10.61259/kt.154698

Hart, Linda (2022). HE 189/2022: Yhteiskuntatieteellinen asiantuntijalausunto [Social science expert opinion]. https://www.eduskunta.fi/FI/vaski/JulkaisuMetatieto/Documents/EDK-2022-AK-69181.pdf

Hart, Linda (September 11, 2021). Sex and gender in Finnish politics in 2021. Women’s Declaration International https://www.womensdeclaration.com/documents/235/Hart_FQT_transcript_110121.pdf

Hart, L. (2018). Anthropology of kinship meets human rights rationality: limits of marriage and family life in the European Court of Human Rights. European Societies, 20(5), 816–834. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2018.1473625