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Lesbos Islanders in Court This Week Over Misappropriation Of "Lesbian" Name

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski

ATHENS, Greece, June 13, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - As LifeSiteNews.com reported earlier this month, three citizens of the Greek Island of Lesbos are pursuing a lawsuit against the Greek Gay and Lesbian Union (GGLU) for its use of the term "lesbian". The Islanders hope to have the court ban the use of the word to describe homosexual women.

"We are very upset that, worldwide, women who like women have appropriated the name of our island," said Dimitris Lambrou, a magazine publisher and one of the islanders making the complaint. "Until 1924, according to the Oxford English dictionary, a Lesbian was a native of our Isle," he said. "Now, because of its new connotations, our womenfolk are unable to call themselves such and that is wrong."

The plaintiffs told the court the dispute was over identity and not sexuality.

"Gay women have every right to define themselves as they wish, but they don't have the right to appropriate our national identity," Lesbos native Ioannis Achlioptas said.

"I have a hard time explaining to my daughter that we Lesbians are not homosexuals. My mother, my sister and my daughter are all Lesbians and it's incredible the amount of ridicule they suffer because of this," Achlioptas told the court. "Our women abroad are forced into hiding… this confusion which is offensive to our place of origin is on the internet, in newspapers, everywhere, you can't imagine the defamation in the United States, Canada, Australia."

One of the islanders wore a badge that read "I am Paul and I am a Lesbian" and afterward unfurled a banner which read, "If you are not from Lesbos, you are not a Lesbian". Another island native held a banner that read, "Yes, Lesbians Do Marry The Opposite Sex".

Dimitris Papadelis, the lawyer representing the Islanders, said the word "causes confusion by using a geographic term in connection with [the group's] special character and social action," according to the Associated Press.

Lawyers from both sides submitted written arguments on Wednesday, and the court is expected to issue its decision in the next two to six months.

Read previous LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Residents of Island of Lesbos are the Only Real 'Lesbians' - Suit Launched over Use of Term
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/apr/08043006.html

Despite Formidable Opposition, Tiny Greek Island Sees First Homosexual "Marriage"
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jun/08060308.html

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