Greek court: Gay women can still be “lesbians”
Lesbos locals lose lesbian appeal
Three residents of the Greek island of Lesbos have lost an attempt to ban the use of the word “lesbian” to describe gay women.
The residents argued that using the term in reference to gay women insulted their identity.
But an Athens court ruled there was no justification for their contention that they felt slighted, saying the word did not define the islanders’ identity.
Greeks often refer to the island as Mytilene, after its capital.
“This is a good decision for lesbians everywhere,” Vassilis Chirdaris, lawyer for the Gay and Lesbian Union of Greece, told Reuters news agency.
Court expenses
The island’s name was applied to gay women in acknowledgement of the female poet Sappho, who wrote love poems about both women and men in about 600 BC.
The man spearheading the case, publisher Dimitris Lambrou, had claimed that international dominance of the word in its sexual context violated the human rights of the islanders - who call themselves Lesbians - and disgraces them around the world.
He argued it caused daily problems to the social life of Lesbos’s inhabitants.
But the court disagreed, ordering the plaintiffs to pay court expenses of 230 euros ($366), although they could appeal against the decision.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/7520343.stm
The French minister of human rights and foreign affairs has announced that it will appeal at the United Nations for a universal decriminalisation of homosexuality.
Still on a Mother’s Day hangover. Has anybody seen this cartoon? Buddy G, My Two Moms and Me was created by a pair of lesbian moms who were looking for a gay-friendly kiddie show, and of course, couldn’t find one. Way to go grabbing the bull by the horns, I say. Pretty handy in the future when we’ve got kids of our own.
by Wayne Besen
