Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.A riddle for you: Dimitris Lambrou is a lesbian but he is a man. He was born a man and has not had a sex change. How can that be?
The answer lies is the fact that he was born on island of Lesbos: A native of Lesbos is a Lesbian.
As discussed in the UK's Times newspaper "Dimitris Lambrou, along with another Lesbos resident and a member of a nationalist pagan association, have started a legal action to gain the exclusive right to call themselves Lesbians. Their legal action seeks to prohibit the Greek Gay and Lesbian Union (OLKE) from using the name "lesbian". The claimants argue that the “seizure” of the term lesbian to mean more than simply “of the island of Lesbos” (in the northern part of the Grecian archipelago) has caused them mental distress."
The irony of this gave me a rye smile since 'Greek' is also slang for a type of sexual practice, forbidden until 2003 in Texas.
A different name argument is taking place in Greece and the former Yugoslavia "Republic of Macedonia" (FYROM) which is now an independent country. Athens' problem is that they also have a region on North Greece called Macedonia and thus, are concerned that FYROM names implies territorial claim on their Macedonia.
Would you believe it that it is now at United Nations level and it is holding up FYROM's membership of Nato? Even President Bush is involved in it. (That alone, will likely be an inverted Midas touch !).
Alexander the Great would be proud of this rift. Speaking of which, When Oliver Stone released his film "Alexander" a group of 25 Greek Lawyers wished to sue of portrayal of Alexander being so effiminate.
The Greeks are not the only ones claiming name exclusivity and resorting to legal system. Even though I like Cava from Spain, only the French have the right to make "Champagne": Bubbly can only be called "Champagne" if from the Chamgagne area. They have EU lobbyist that thank for that but it would be interesting to see if Champaigne Illinois fremented some grapes, could they call it US Champaigne and launch a spoiler product ? Whilst not a place per se, Budweiser US lost out in a claim against worldwide rights to Czech brewer of "Budweiser".
There are some places that no other country would wish to claim but are minor tourist attractions in their own right.The Austrian place in photo above is one and for the Brits, Wank in Baveria.
Apparently in both places, they have to spend a lot of time replacing signs which get stolen by infantile British visitors.
One place which will not get a title claim against it is England's Great Snoring .
However, the ultimate is name trumps has to be the longest place name in the UK: Wales' Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch on Anglesey Island. A bit crap really in that your main attraction is your sign post.
Thieves beware on LLFPGG sign: To steal this sign will require at 3 people just to carry it. On the bright side, the Greeks will have no claim on it.
Phileas Fogg,
Houston, Texas
3rd May 2007
1 comment:
Here's an update on this story:-
"Three residents of the Greek island of Lesbos have lost an attempt to ban the use of the word "lesbian" to describe gay women.
The residents argued that using the term in reference to gay women insulted their identity.
But an Athens court ruled there was no justification for their contention that they felt slighted, saying the word did not define the islanders' identity.
Greeks often refer to the island as Mytilene, after its capital.
"This is a good decision for lesbians everywhere," Vassilis Chirdaris, lawyer for the Gay and Lesbian Union of Greece, told Reuters news agency.
Court expenses
The island's name was applied to gay women in acknowledgement of the female poet Sappho, who wrote love poems about both women and men in about 600 BC.
The man spearheading the case, publisher Dimitris Lambrou, had claimed that international dominance of the word in its sexual context violated the human rights of the islanders - who call themselves Lesbians - and disgraces them around the world.
He argued it caused daily problems to the social life of Lesbos's inhabitants.
But the court disagreed, ordering the plaintiffs to pay court expenses of 230 euros ($366), although they could appeal against the decision."
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