{"id":12409,"date":"2008-05-11T15:19:49","date_gmt":"2008-05-11T22:19:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2008\/05\/11\/the-love-whose-name-is-trademarked.html"},"modified":"2008-05-11T15:19:49","modified_gmt":"2008-05-11T22:19:49","slug":"the_love_whose_name_is_tr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/05\/11\/the_love_whose_name_is_tr.html","title":{"rendered":"The love whose name is trademarked"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, not quite, but some residents of the island of Lesbos who (it is claimed) call themselves Lesbians, are upset that their locational designation has been usurped by gay women<\/a>, the “Homosexual and Lesbian Community of Greece” in particular.<\/p>\n

Lesbians (the gay women kind) adopted the name from the island, which was most famously the home of the poet Sappho, who, among other things, wrote poems about love between women.<\/p>\n

The locals from Lesbos seem to have suddenly become aware of this, and are now suing in court. While both women and men are complaining about it, it’s not clear which gender is more unhappy about the reaction when they describe themselves as Lesbians.<\/p>\n

Hmmm. It’s almost like one of those domain disputes over food and wine in the EU, e.g., you can’t call it Champagne unless it comes fro the Champagne district of France. Except, in this case, it’s not a matter of sparkling wine trying to call themselves the name of official sparkling wines, more like a brand of car calling itself the Champagne and having the French get ticked off about it.<\/p>\n

Some possible solutions:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Use capital letters appropriately. I’ve always found it vaguely incorrect for Lesbians (the gay women) to use a capital L when gay men only get lower case letters. So let “lesbians” refer to the gay women, Lesbians to the Aegean island dwellers.  Not that it will stop the glances or snickers when someone from Lesbos mentions their nationality in conversation.<\/li>\n
  2. Drop back to the old-fashioned “sapphists” and “sapphic” nomenclatures, more accurately allowing gay women to commemorate the person they intend to honor without the folks of Lesbos getting peeved. Plus it has a cool 19th Century sort of ring to it.<\/li>\n
  3. Just call them all “gay” and stop coming up with gender-specific nomenclature. I mean, isn’t that kind of discriminatory?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Obviously, I have no personal skin in the game, being neither Greek nor gay. I just have an interest in language and how it evolves, along with a disdain for political correctness (though a fondness for politeness, which is not the same thing). I don’t want to tell people what they can or should call themselves, while at the same time I can understand the dismay of some folks of Lesbos (whether or not they represent a majority, or even if people from that island actually call themselves Lesbian) at having people make assumptions (or jokes) about them.<\/p>\n

    No good answers here, assuming the questions are valid, but I’ll be curious to see how it plays out in the Greek courts. <\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

    (via Tracy<\/a>)<\/p>\n

    <\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Well, not quite, but some residents of the island of Lesbos who (it is claimed) call themselves Lesbians, are upset that their locational designation has been usurped by gay women,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[25,24,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gay-stuff","category-writing-and-language","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":17409,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/05\/19\/tony-perkins-and-the-evil-gay-military-menace.html","url_meta":{"origin":12409,"position":0},"title":"Tony Perkins and THE EVIL GAY MILITARY MENACE!","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 19-May-10 9:54pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Tony and the Family Research Council are off and running again on HOW TEH GAYZ ARE GOING TO DESTROY OUR MILITARY!!!!!!!\u00a0 The Axis couldn't do it.\u00a0 The Soviets couldn't do it.\u00a0 But the Gays can!\u00a0 With RAINBOWS! I fervently believe the glorious Star-Spangled Banner should wave over our soldiers, sailors,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "LGBTQ &c"","block_context":{"text":"LGBTQ &c","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/gay-stuff"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/church-and-state.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":18059,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/08\/04\/a-little-rationality-creeps-into-california.html","url_meta":{"origin":12409,"position":1},"title":"A little rationality creeps into California","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 4-Aug-10 5:15pm","format":false,"excerpt":"As you can tell by the high-pitched screams from certain quarters, Federal Judge Vaughn Walker has overturned California's Proposition 8 (decision here).\u00a0 The nitty-gritty: Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license. Indeed, the evidence shows Proposition\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "LGBTQ &c"","block_context":{"text":"LGBTQ &c","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/gay-stuff"},"img":{"alt_text":"Themis, Blind Justice","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/blind-justice-themis-219x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":32029,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/03\/another-victim-of-the-house-gop-the-violence-against-women-act.html","url_meta":{"origin":12409,"position":2},"title":"Another victim of the House GOP: the Violence Against Women Act","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 3-Jan-13 10:45am","format":false,"excerpt":"Like Hurricane Sandy victims, the GOP in the House decided that rather than negotiate on what they disliked about the Senate bill (which apparently gave too much support to immigrants, Lesbians, and Native American women), they simply let it die until next Congress. \u00a0Way to win the hearts and minds\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15838,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/09\/18\/the-unvirtuous-church.html","url_meta":{"origin":12409,"position":3},"title":"The Unvirtuous Church","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 18-Sep-09 6:17pm","format":false,"excerpt":"\"VirtueOnline\" is a conservative religious site (\"The Voice for Global Orthodox Anglicanism\") headed up by David Virtue. \"Global Orthodox Anglicanism\" usually seems to mean \"We don't like the Episcopal Church because they don't stone gays -- oh, and they kinda dabble with having women in the priesthood, too, and most\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Episcopal Church"","block_context":{"text":"Episcopal Church","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion\/religion-episcopal-church"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/episcshield.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1895,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/04\/12\/mental_illness.html","url_meta":{"origin":12409,"position":4},"title":"Mental illness","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 12-Apr-02 4:37pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A Mississippi judge opines that, rather than passing a law like one in California that allows gays the right to file wrongful death suits regarding their partners, \"gays and lesbians...","rel":"","context":"In "LGBTQ &c"","block_context":{"text":"LGBTQ &c","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/gay-stuff"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24276,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/06\/human-rights-are-human-rights.html","url_meta":{"origin":12409,"position":5},"title":"Human Rights Are Human Rights","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 6-Dec-11 2:28pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I applaud the effort by the White House to include gay rights as human rights that the US will strive to protect internationally. I'm sure it will draw frothing vitriol from the Religious Right, because criminalization and legal discrimination of gays is part of their national and international agenda, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12409\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}