In Praise of ... Lesbians

If the campaign was not so misogynistically narrow-minded there might be something vaguely heroic about it. The attempt by activists on the Greek island of Lesbos to persuade the world that the only people entitled to call themselves Lesbians are the 100,000 or so male and female inhabitants of the Aegean island is a doomed one. There is simply no way that the millions of women who are sexually attracted to other women will ever cease either being lesbians or calling themselves lesbians, in Greece or anywhere else - even if they know nothing about Sappho of Lesbos and the origin of the word. Dimitris Lambrou, though, is an angry man. He wants a Greek court to rule that the Homosexual and Lesbian Community of Greece, a gay rights organization, must change its name. He says the sexual use of the word lesbian violates the human rights of the Lesbian islanders and disgraces them around the world. If he succeeds, Mr Lambrou wants his campaign to go global. If that happens he should prepare for disdain, not acclaim. It is not the word lesbian but people like Mr Lambrou who bring disgrace upon Lesbos. Most people outside Greece will regard his campaign as intolerant at worst and silly at best - much as they now also regard the Greek campaign against the use of the name Macedonia or against the naming of Skopje airport after Alexander the Great. In a spirit of real friendship, someone should tell the Greeks that their current taste for historical indignation generates not sympathy but ridicule.