Politics

Meanwhile, on the Isle of Lesbos…

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Reader H Clay points us to this BBC story about what might just be the ultimate nuisance lawsuit since The Simpsons' Lionel Hutz took on The Neverending Story:

Campaigners on the Greek island of Lesbos are to go to court in an attempt to stop a gay rights organisation from using the term "lesbian".

The islanders say that if they are successful they may then start to fight the word lesbian internationally.

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.

The kicker to the story? Sorry, girls, Sappho was married: "According to Mr Lambrou, new historical research has discovered that Sappho had a family, and committed suicide for the love of a man."

Whole thing here.