I was going to post about this same issue!  My favorite lines in the AP article I read were,

"My sister can't say she is a Lesbian"

and

"...the word lesbian has only been linked with gay women in the past few decades.  "'But we have been Lesbians for thousands of years...'"

Classic!

O Lesbians, Lesbians! wherefore art thou Lesbians?
Deny thy label and refuse thy name...*
(Let's just be "gay"!)

*With apologies to William Shakespeare....
(My inner Thespian Lesbian is surfacing.)
;-)
 
Oh...and SunnyDay...those are great quotes!
("But we have been Lesbians for thousands of years..." ;-) )

From my personal blog with love...

In what could be a setback of sapphic proportion to gay women everywhere, residents of the Aegean Sea island of Lesbos are asking a Greek court to rule that only they should have the honor to be called “Lesbians.” Andno, I’m not kidding.

Apparently those of us who are women loving women have co-opted the lesbian moniker from the islanders for our own nefarious purposes. According to plaintiff Dimitris Lambrou, “Our geographical designation has been usurped by certain ladies who have no connection whatsoever with Lesbos.”

I don’t know how to tell you this, Dimitris, but I’ve had plenty connections with lesbos in my lifetime. Plenty. But I don’t like to brag.

As everyone who’s ever taken a women’s studies course knows, Lesbos is the birthplace of the Greek poet Sappho. Many of her poems contain passionate references to love for other women. Although much to the disappointment of lowercase lesbians everywhere, Dimitris also claims Sappho was not gay. If he’s right, this gives Sappho the distinction of being the first in a long line of “straight women” on record as just being “gay for pay.”

In fact, Lambrou, who must also be a world renowned etymologist, said the word lesbian has only been linked with our sisterhood forthe past few decades. “But we have been Lesbians for thousands of years,” he says proudly. Hmm. I just had a flashback to the lesbian man, Lisa, in season one of The L Word.

He also asks (one must assume rhetorically), “How can 250,000 people of Lesbian descent — including women — be considered homosexual?” Well, Dimitris, that could take awhile to explain, and I don’t have the time right now.

I’m not an attorney, and I don’t really know anything about Greek law or how the court might rule, but I believe that we need to be thinking about a new name for ourselves just in case. I mean what if we wake uptomorrow and we can no longer call ourselves lesbians? What then? I know that as lesbians we are notorious for needing to “process” such a huge change to our chi, but time is of the essence.

How about calling ourselves sapphians? Or maybe vaginains? Any other ideas, sisters? Be sure to get them on The Homosexual Agenda before the next big meet and greet. Oh, and I’ll bring the relish tray.

Posted from: Womyn Rock & Write 

Okay now that the laughing is over these people must just be livid over the name. What other possible reason would one have for taking such extreme steps? I know an older man who just wont use the term gay to represent a homosexual, in his "day" that word had another "nice" meaning.

I guess putting myself in something like their shoes, if the name Jamie were used as a term for flying monkeys I'd be upset also. I would want to take back the name Jamie and not allow rogue groups of flying monkeys to sully it with there nonexistence.

Can't wait until June 10 to see what the outcome will be.

They sure have too much time to waste. Don't they have more important problems to solve, like Cyprus. And I'm not sure, but is Lesbos even a greek name?

Anyway, I would prefer sapphite as an alternative. But of course I'm heavily biased. :)

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3850185.ece

The guys quote from this English Newspaper is a bit much methinks.

I think the whole thing is a marketing play for his 'magazine'.

I'd like to see a new moniker, just like danish pastries were renamed after last years Prophet cartoon scandal to Roses of Mohammed...

I'll leave it up to your imaginations :D

Lesbians in Greece could go back to what many women of the homo-persuasion were reffered to for a long time- sapphist ... but it seems like a silly detail that is easily resolved in a matter of a few words...

..as in the island... or ...the other kind....

I don't know, doesn't seem like a lawsuit needs to be made out of it.

but see the title of this comment.. 

 once again, i feel ashamed of my Greek descent.

it's really sad

And this is a reply from a spokeswoman for the Homosexual and Lesbian Community of Greece, Evangelia Vlami:

"The action was a joke in bad taste that borders on discrimination.

I'm just a soul whose intentions are good. . . xD

Now all I want to do is to go to Lesbos so I can wear a t-shirt that says "I'm a Lesbian, and so are you!"...poor confused fuckers won't know what to say..."No i'm not, yes I am, no wait, no i'm not!..." lol  :D

__________________________

Arrr, let's goooooo...

why don't they just call themselves Lesbosbians - might save a lot of heartache at going to court and to be honest, you would then have to educate the rest of the world if they win their case - or they could just get a t-shirt saying "I'm a Lesbian but i'm not Gay" !!!??? then the world can figure that one out !

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7376919.stm

Will be interesting to see what the final outcome of this. I have to say i have been to Lesbos and the Lesbians (inhabitants) are lovely friendly people - i'm happy to share Lesbian with them.

I can understand where they are coming from yet I don't understand why it's so insulting for a resident of Lesbos (a lesbian) to share the same name as a homosexual woman. However, just like the girl who said she'd be upset if flying monkeys were now named Jamie I'm sure I wouldn't want flying monkeys to be named Kalena. I don't see anything wrong with flying monkeys, in fact I think flying monkeys are pretty cool. I prefer the flying speghetti monster, I wouldn't mind sharing my name with the flying spaghetti monster.

If we did have to change our names (which would tkae a very long time even if they do win the case, I mean what are they going to do? Put billboards up everywhere going "ATTENTION HOMOSEXUAL WOMEN, YOU ARE NOT A LESBIAN ANYMORE, YOU ARE A __________"

I think the term Gayelle is cute like what Mellissa said even though that'd be kinda hard to say if you were talking fast you'd end up saying gail instead of gay-elle.

The heart has its reasons which reason knows not of.

I suppose i can understand where they're coming from. The only thing that surprises me is the fact that it's taken this long for them to speak up about it. I mean, where have they been? Have they been secretly lounging in the lesbos coffeehouses, bemoaning the fact that they're embarassed every time a foreigner gives them the squiggly eye because a man just identified himself as a "Lesbian"? And it wasn't a joke? Why bring this up now?

Admittedly, my knoledge of Greek politics is..uuh.. nonexistant. Is there an election of some sort coming up? Something that the Greek people need to be distracted from? Seems like people always bring up homosexually related issues when they want to misdirect attention from something else. *shrugs*

As for a 'new' name, i gotta tell'ya.. Sapphite doesn't really work for me. It brings to mind thoughs of either geological formations (stalagmite) or strange, foreign mineral spreads that never made sense to me (vegimite/marmite). (yes, i hear it's delicious. no, i don't want to try it on toast. thank you). :o)

Just my 2 dinars worth.  

~mar

Island residents asked for a ban on use of 'lesbian' to describe gay women 

ATHENS - A Greek court has dismissed a request by residents of the Aegean island of Lesbos to ban the use of the word lesbian to describe gay women, according to a court ruling made public on Tuesday.

Three residents of Lesbos, the birthplace of the ancient Greek poetess Sappho whose love poems inspired the term lesbian, brought a case last month arguing the use of the term in reference to gay women insulted their identity.

In a July 18 decision, the Athens court said the word did not define the identity of the residents of the island, and so it could be validly used by gay groups in Greece and abroad.

The ruling ordered the plaintiffs to pay court expenses of $366.2.

"This is a good decision for lesbians everywhere," Vassilis Chirdaris, lawyer for the Gay and Lesbian Union of Greece, told Reuters. "A court in Athens could not stop people around the world from using it. It was ridiculous."

He said the plaintiffs were free to appeal the decision in a higher court.

Lesbos, which lies just off the Turkish Coast, has become a gathering spot for gay women from around the world, especially at the village of Eressos which is regarded as the birthplace of the poet in the 7th century B.C.

Several residents testified during the trial that the use of the word lesbian had brought recognition to the island and boosted its tourist trade.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25798114/ 

_________

"Three residents of Lesbos, the birthplace of the ancient Greek poetess Sappho..."

"Poetess"? I thought that little piece of markedness went out long ago.

Huzzah for common sense on the ruling though.

Would it be impolite of me to mention that most of the evidence would suggest that Sappho was bi?

And I'm pretty certain it was a man who first came up with the idea of calling homosexual women lesbians.

Gayelle sounds quite nice to me. And that's a name some homosexual women have given themselves.

It would be nice to have a special name for bisexual women too. I can't say I'm happy with byke. It sounds far too much like the village bike - everyone gets to have a ride. No thank you!