I’ve just found a hilarious article - Who are the real lesbians? - about a guy who lives on the Greek Island Lesbos (home to the lesbian poet Sappho) who filed a lawsuit on 10 April against the Greek Gay and Lesbian Union with an aim to remove the word “lesbian” from the group’s name.
“It’s not an aggressive act against gay women,” Mr Lambrou said. “Let them visit Lesbos and get married and whatever they like. We just want them to remove the word lesbian from their title.”
In the world of Mr enlightened Lambrou you can only be a Lesbian with an upper-case L if you are “descended from the inhabitants of Lesbos.” If you are not a descendant then it’s lower-case l all the way.
I think the millions of Lesbians (Lesbian with a capital L, how wicked of me!) across the globe may have something to say about Mr Lambrou’s rather out-dated ideas. (And surely it also has ramifications for our much beloved The L Word? l Word just doesn’t work as well does it?!)
It’s taken me years to even semi-embrace the word “lesbian” as a term I use to describe myself - and I still find it doesn’t fit all that comfortably (see rant about when sexual identity can get in the way). But hearing that a silly narrow-minded man in Greece wants to take it away has suddenly made me feel rather protective of it.
I wonder if there is a capital-L Lesbian petition I could sign…. ![]()
Tags: lesbian identities, lesbian identity, lesbian poet, Lesbos, Sappho










