Greek Islanders Want Legal Right To Be 'True Lesbians'

Residents of the Greek island of Lesbos have launched a legal case against a lesbian group, insisting that only islanders had the right to call themselves lesbians.

The inhabitants of the island said they were attempting to ban the Greek Gay and Lesbian Union (Olke) from bearing the name "lesbian" and claim residents of Lesbos now suffer "psychological and moral rape" from the "seizure" of their island's name.

Dimitris Lambrou, a local activist who has the support of a member of a nationalist pagan association, said that the case was likely to come before a court in Athens in June.

But Evangelia Vlam, a spokesman for OLKE, dismissed the claim and said: "This affair is totally ridiculous. But if we are summoned by the courts, we will be heard."

Lesbos was the home of the poet Sappho, who expressed her love of other women in lyric verses written in the early sixth century BC.

It is the third largest of the Greek islands and its resort of Eressos is a popular tourist destination for lesbians worldwide.

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