lesbians don't like being called lesbians as they are not lesbians

[2shoes]

I wouldn't want to have to decide who is right, would you?

What the hell do they want them to be called then?

I can understand both sides and just hope I find out if this gets changed so I don't put my foot in my mouth at a later time. lol

Why are the people from Lesbos called Lesbians? Why not say I'm from Lesbos or I'm a Lesboian if they don't like the connotation?

this is silly.

Why not ask the gay community what name they favour - or lets be honest - why does there have to be a 'name' for gay women - why not just 'homosexual' like if you are with an opposite sex partner you are 'hetrosexual'.

Poor old Sappho. As if it isn't bad enough that most of her work has been lost.

I'm reminded to the Little Britain euphemisms, 'Those who have drunk at the hairy chalice'

LOL

Saying 'I'm a Lesboian' sounds though as if you are gay and have a speech impediment...

i always thoght lesbians, or the two i know, like to be referred to as gay?

lesbian is often used in a degrogatory way against women.

I've never liked the word lesbian really. I hope we're coming to a point where the lable isn't needed so much and we can just say homosexual.

It another of those areas which is so peppered with angst, misunderstanding and intolerance, that the language has become difficult and laden.

She i've never used labels much anyway. I tend to just say he's gay or she likes girls (I don't know why! lol)

all this discussion is very interesting but did anyone spot the squid on the string in the boat?????? WTF?

oh btw this is the real eeny not the imposter she always uses silly extra letters

Regardless of how you refer to gay people the word lesbian will always be associated with gay women. I don't think the islanders will ever reclaim it for themselves outside of their own community.

i find the word 'homosexual' rather pejorative though for various reasons - isn't that why the word 'gay' is now used?

gay used to mean happy.

so are gay people happier than straight people?

IME lesbians like to be called lesbians, queers, gay women, fruits, homosexuals, dykes, gayers etc. Or they don't, depending on personal preference. That's because lesbians, like any other group of individual humans, have varying likes and dislikes depending on their personal experiences.

The people of Lesbos will just have to suck it up, I'm afraid (no pun intended).

Agree with Cyteen.

what a very tolerant post, cyteen.

It is confusing, and should be changed. Anyway, words for homosexual/gay/ change so relatively quickly, that the islanders probably only have to wait another hundred years or so, and only bigots will be saying lesbian, so they will get their adjective back again.

this is copied and pasted from wikipedia, to save me the effort of typing it from my own memory

"The word lesbian is derived from the poems of Sappho, born in Lesbos, which contain powerful emotional content directed toward other females and have frequently been interpreted as expressing homosexual love. Because of this association, Lesbos and especially the town of Eresos, her birthplace, are visited frequently by lesbian tourists"

Oh come on, it's not remotely confusing! How many women from Lesbos have you met, ever?
Sounds to me like prejudice against gay people from the embarrassed inhabitants of a small Greek island.

Anyway, they can't 'change it'. The word is out there, so to speak.

MsD, how is it prejudice? There's clearly ambiguity.

I find the argument that the Lesbians should lose because they are smaller in number, a bit uncomfortable, coming from people supporting the cause of lesbians (a tiny minority). Haven't we campaigned for years for the rights of minorities?

Then, here comes a case there the minority is the majority, and suddenly it's OK to overrule the rights of the minority....

It doesn't make me wonder what it might be like to drink from the furry cup.

Look, nobody's telling the people of Lesbos that they can't be called Lesbians. there is not big militant gay thing that they can't call themselves Lesbians. They aren't going to 'lose' they just have to live with the fact that Lesbian is ALSO the term for a gay woman. The Lesbians of Lesbos can choose to change their name if they don't like being associated with gay women, but nobody's forcing them to do any such thing.
And there is no ambiguity in reality because almost nobody around the world ever meets a woman who introduces herself as lesbian and thinks, 'ooh, is she gay or is she from a small Greek island'. it just doesn't happen. The people of Lesbos are just embarrassed, and they will have to live with it.

Oops, rather repetitive post, but I think you get the gist!
Nobody has to win or lose, the people of Lesbos can carry on being Lesbians just as they always did.
It's as if people called Smellie tried to insist that nobody could use the word to mean odiferous.

I am not sure about the right and wrongs about this story - but the thread title puts me in mind of a headline in my student newsapaer once - related to inappropriate staff- student 'ahem' contact - 'Lecherous Lecturers, lecture us!'

Totally ot sorry - please continue.