The Pori Jazz Festival in Finland has fired it’s new boss Aki Ruotsala because of comments he’s made about homosexuality.
Ruotsala was due to take up his position as CEO in August, but the festival has pulled his appointment after a series of homophobic comments he’d previously made were highlighted in the media, and artists threatened to boycott the long running festival.
When the board announced his appointment on Monday, local media began asking questions about Ruotsala’s time as the chair of the youth wing of Finland’s Christian Democratic Party. In 2001 the party supported a campaign called ‘Don’t Back Down’ that suggested homosexuality could be cured.
The newly appointment festival director said it was a position he stood by, telling a reporter that there were no homosexual people – only homosexuality.
“I do not want to categorize people. I think there are no gay men, there is only homosexuality. But I do not want to decide whether homosexuality is too bad or not when I’m not a theologian.” In the interview he also appeared to suggest that homosexuality was akin to having a drug addiction.
The newly appointed festival CEO has said that he was misquoted in the article, but the festival’s board quickly met and decided that they’d made an error in hiring Ruotsala.
“Pori Jazz completely and unconditionally rejects all kinds of discrimination,” chair Hannu Jaakkola said in a statment. “We are a discrimination-free and equal festival. These values are shared by the Pori Jazz board and the festival’s staff. We apologise to everyone this has affected and offended.”
“Decisions like this are not easy, but they’re unavoidable in this kind of cultural organisation,” Jaakkola said. “If we’d known about his opinions before we would not have appointed him.”
Ruotsala said he would look for new opportunities, and the future of the festival was more important than his employment.
“Pori Jazz is one of Finland’s most prestigious and finest festivals. What matters to me is that it grows and thrives.” Ruotsala said on his Facebook page.
Pori Jazz is an annual week-long music festival held each July in the west coast city of Pori, attracting more than 100,000 people every year. This year’s event will be headlined by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Alanis Morissette, James Blunt and Burt Bacharach.
OIP Staff
