Home is Where My Heart Is

Education opportunities and associations allowed deaf people to come together. As a result, deaf people started to form more romantic relationships with one another than in previous years. The first known marriage between two deaf people took place in 1863, when Carl Oscar Malm’s students Fritz Hirn and Maria Klingenberg were married with the special permission of Emperor Alexander II. The couple’s example was soon followed by many others.

Deaf people mostly married each other, although some also begun relationships with hearing people. Partners were found where deaf people gathered together – at school, in connection with association activities, hobbies and later on social media. Love could even be found halfway around the world, as Finnish deaf people have always had close ties to the international community.

The eugenist Marriage Act of 1929 prohibited marriages between people who were deaf by birth, seeking to reduce the number of deaf people. Eugenics also led to the introduction of the sterilisation act in 1935, resulting in sterilisation of deaf women. Both of these laws seriously violated the human rights of deaf people.