• by Courtney Humiston , July 22, 2008

Legal action, publicity stunt, blatant act of homophobia or desperate cry for attention? Any way you look at it, the recent lawsuit involving citizens of the island of Lesbos and the Homosexual and Lesbian Community of Greece is just plain silly. Claiming that the gay rights organization "insults the identity" of the people of Lesbos, three locals are asking the government to force the group to remove the word "lesbian" from its title. Complains one of the plaintiffs: "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." Amen, sister, is what the spokeswoman for the group could have said. Instead, she responded, "I don't see what the problem is. Can't a woman just say, 'I am from the island of Lesbos'?"

The Aegean island was home of the ancient homoerotic poetess Sappho and currently boasts a population of merely 100,000, making the amount of press that this lawsuit has received (and from reputable publications) surprising. So surprising we figured we'd better jump in with our two cents. But really, we just wanted to share one more quote, this time from a defense witness: "My daughter has no problem being called a Lesbian even though she's not a lesbian." If nothing else, maybe the defense can provide some illuminating parenting tips to the baffled plaintiff.