News Who Are The Real Lesbians?
posted by on May 1 at 9:14 AM
I saw the headline yesterday and brushed it off as a last-day-of-April Fools joke. But no, it’s real: Campaigners on the Greek isle of Lesbos are going to court to wrangle exclusive rights to the term “Lesbian.”
BBC News reports:
The issue boils down to who has the right to call themselves Lesbians. Is it gay women, or the 100,000 people living on Greece’s third biggest island—plus another 250,000 expatriates who originate from Lesbos? The man spearheading the case, publisher Dimitris Lambrou, claims that international dominance of the word in its sexual context violates the human rights of the islanders, and disgraces them around the world. He says it causes daily problems to the social life of Lesbos’s inhabitants.In court papers, the plaintiffs allege that the Greek government is so embarrassed by the term Lesbian that it has been forced to rename the island after its capital, Mytilini. An early court date has now been set for judges to decide whether to grant an injunction against the Homosexual and Lesbian Community of Greece and to order it to change its name.
Good luck with that. Full story here.
Lesbians should refer to themselves as Lambrousians from now on.
So relieved that I am not a lesbian. Or Lesbian, I suppose.
From now on homosexual women should be officially refered to as "carpet munchers".
Between this and Macedonia, someone needs to tell the Greeks that they don't have exclusive rights to Nouns.
Why don't we just shift the burden and call them lebanese?
Let's just call them what they are: bitches.
ew .... messy
i hear 1893 wants in on that suit.
If I'm not mistaken, I'm not really sure that homosexual women had much say in what they are refered to.
But . . . what are you trying to say about Peppermint Patty and Marcie?
Hahaha. Yeah. That's gonna work...
"Lesbian" has been the accepted term for gay women around the world for decades. Regardless of the outcome of this silly lawsuit, you cannot un-ring that bell.
is is this so, then how come people from crete aren't called cretins, or people from rhodes rhodies?
mr. poe, get back to work!
I don't see what the big deal is. If I remember my vacation in Lesbos well, they have pretty much the same cultural identity. They're both kind of crunchy granola nature types and enjoy a diet consisting mainly of fish.
I agree w/ #11; my only question is, why do gay women need a special title anyway? I mean, straight men and women, they're all just "straight." Why are gay men and women called two different things?
LEBISIAN (pronounced LA-BEE-JIAN) is now the new Lesbian. Please make a note of it.
What if they're a Lesbian from the Isle of Man?
Wait a minute . . . people from Crete ARE called Cretins. And what's wrong with calling them dykes?
So if you're a gay woman living on Lesbos, can you say you're a Lesbian lesbian?
I got nothin'.
i like le-bee-thans better
This is very similar to Rick Santorum's predicament. They should have trademarked their name. They've lost their valuable brand-recognition and will never get it back.
@17 - I think you mean Cretans. And Corsica has Corsicans.
Cretin's derived from Christian, not Crete.
After the island changes its name from Lesbos to Mytilini, gay women should totally start calling themselves Mytilinese, just to spite 'em.
Wait until the citizens of the island of Faggotia hear of this ...
I don't understand. Who exactly are they suing, and in what court?
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