April 30, 2008
“Lesbians” as in “people of the Isle of Lesbos,” that is — who, I thought, have preferred to call themselves “Lesbosians” ever since we women-lovin’ women co-opted the word “lesbian” long before the idiots in this story were even born:
People of Lesbos take gay group to court over term ‘Lesbian’
ATHENS, Greece — A Greek court has been asked to draw the line between the natives of the Aegean Sea island of Lesbos and the world’s gay women.
Three islanders from Lesbos — home of the ancient poet Sappho, who praised love between women — have taken a gay rights group to court for using the word lesbian in its name.
One of the plaintiffs said Wednesday that the name of the association, Homosexual and Lesbian Community of Greece, “insults the identity” of the people of Lesbos, who are also known as Lesbians.
“My sister can’t say she is a Lesbian,” said Dimitris Lambrou. “Our geographical designation has been usurped by certain ladies who have no connection whatsoever with Lesbos,” he said.
The three plaintiffs are seeking to have the group barred from using “lesbian” in its name and filed a lawsuit on April 10. The other two plaintiffs are women.
Also called Mytilene, after its capital, Lesbos is famed as the birthplace of Sappho. The island is a favored holiday destination for gay women, particularly the lyric poet’s reputed home town of Eressos.
“This is not an aggressive act against gay women,” Lambrou said. “Let them visit Lesbos and get married and whatever they like. We just want (the group) to remove the word lesbian from their title.”
He said the plaintiffs targeted the group because it is the only officially registered gay group in Greece to use the word lesbian in its name. The case will be heard in an Athens court on June 10. …
What a bunch of sanctimonious twits. I hope they lose their stupid lawsuit in a big way — after which we can all laugh at their pettiness.
Posted by: Sapphocrat
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Random Stupidity
March 19, 2008
The United States will be left in the dust by yet another country before long as Norway prepares to legalize same-sex marriage.
Norway already has a so-called “partnership law” that has allowed homosexuals to form legal domestic partnerships. Now they likely will be able to marry, with all the rights that entails, since the government has a majority in parliament and the law is expected to win approval.
The bill, called “felles ekteskapslov” in Norwegian, will also ensure that children of lesbian couples will have two legal parents from the beginning of life, and that married homosexuals will be evaluated as adoptive parents along the same lines as heterosexual couples.
The new government minister in charge of children’s and family issues, Anniken Huitfeldt of the Labour Party, called the proposed law “an historic step towards equality.” She said the goal of the law is to demonstrate that homosexual and heterosexual couples are equal under the law.
“The new law won’t weaken marriage as an institution,” Huitfeldt claimed. “Rather, it will strengthen it. Marriage won’t be worth less because more can take part in it.”
We should expect Norway to fall into the ocean within a decade or two, at least according to Sally Kern and Mary Frances Forrester. Of course I don’t put any credence in their insane homophobic rantings so I think Norway will be around for a great deal longer than a decade or two.
Good for Norway, and congratulations to all of the same-sex couples who will be able to take advantage of the new law when it becomes effective!
Posted by: Buffy
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September 21, 2007
From Gay.com:
New research from the Netherlands shows that children raised by lesbian couples are as well-adjusted as those raised in heterosexual families.
. . .
The analysis was of 200 couples with boys and girls ages 4 to 8. Half the parents were heterosexual, half lesbians. Child adjustment and parental characteristics were measured by questionnaires, family observations by researchers and diaries kept by parents recording the amount of time they spent child rearing, working around the house, and working outside their home.
The results showed that lesbian biological mothers were more satisfied with their partners as a co-parent than heterosexual mothers were. It was also shown that lesbian mothers were more committed to the task of parenting than straight fathers.
There were significant differences in the division of family tasks, with both of the lesbian partners spending more time on household work and child care, and less time at work outside the home, than the heterosexual fathers.
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Posted by: Sapphocrat
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September 13, 2007
365Gay.com reports:
Polish police say they are dropping the hunt for whoever was behind a series of bombs which later turned out to be fakes that were discovered in four cities in the days leading up to the 2005 presidential election.
The devices were discovered after anonymous phone calls to police from someone claiming to be from an organization called the Gay Power Brigade.
Thirteen devices were found in Warsaw. Police said that the “bombs” were sophisticated and it took bomb squad experts some time to realize they were not dealing with real explosives.
Similar dummy bombs also were discovered in train stations in Gdansk, Gdynia and Sopot.
The discoveries caused panic in the streets of all four cities.
In a lengthy manifesto sent to Warsaw newspapers and wire services the Gay Power Brigade condemned Warsaw Mayor Lech Kaczynski, who was running for president.
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Posted by: Sapphocrat
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September 12, 2007
Reports 365Gay.com:
An Albany court has dismissed a challenge to a decision by New York State’s Comptroller that treats out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples the same as any other legal marriage in terms of benefits afforded to state employees through the New York State Retirement System.
In 2004 in response to an inquiry by a gay state employee wanting to know if his retirement benefits would cover his family if he went to Canada to legally marry his partner, New York State Comptroller at the time, Alan Hevesi, stated that, “Based on current law, the retirement system will recognize a same-sex Canadian marriage in the same manner as an opposite-sex New York marriage under the principle of comity. That principle has been legal practice pursuant to New York Court of Appeals rulings for many years.”
. . .
Hevesi’s interpretation of the law matched that of then Attorney General, now Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who also said that, under the state’s current laws, same-sex couples who legally married in other jurisdictions should be treated as any other married couple in New York State.
The Alliance Defend Fund, an Arizona- based organization that regularly fights LGBT issues, filed the suit, citing the July 2006 ruling by the Court of Appeals - the state’s highest court - that upheld New York’s ban on same-sex marriage.
. . .
The issue that Hevesi addressed for the purpose of retirement benefits involved only same-sex marriages from Canada. Following today’s ruling by Judge McNamara, Hevesi’s successor, Thomas P. DiNapoli announced that the retirement system would be recognizing all legal out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples and not just those from Canada. This will include same-sex marriages performed in Massachusetts, Spain, Netherlands, South Africa and Belgium.
The ADF has not said if it will appeal today’s ruling.
See also:
NY recognizes Canadian same-sex marriages
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Posted by: Sapphocrat
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September 9, 2007
Good! ‘Cause Baja is a great
honeymoon destination!
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Newsweek checks the climate of same-sex equality in countries where you’d least expect to find it:
After eight years together, Gilberto Aranda and Mauricio List walked into a wedding chapel in the Mexico City neighborhood of Coyoacán last April and tied the knot in front of 30 friends and relatives. Aranda’s disapproving father was not invited to the springtime nuptials. For the newlyweds, the ceremony marked the fruit of the gay-rights movement’s long struggle to gain recognition in Mexico. The capital city had legalized gay civil unions only the month before. “After all the years of marches and protests,” says Aranda, 50, a state-government official, “a sea change was coming.”
. . .
The sweeping terms of the 2006 Civil Union Act placed South Africa in a select club of nations that have enacted similar laws and that, until last year, included only Canada, Belgium, Spain and the Netherlands. But there are glimmers of change in other nations. China decriminalized sodomy a decade ago and removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders in 2001. Police broke up a gay and lesbian festival in Beijing in 2005 but took no action last February against an unauthorized rally in support of legalizing gay marriage. The Chinese Communist Party has established gay task forces in all provincial capitals to promote HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention. And in April a Web site launched a weekly hour-long online program called Connecting Homosexuals with an openly gay host. It is the first show in China to focus entirely on gay issues.
Tolerance, however, by no means spans the globe. Homosexuality remains taboo throughout the greater Middle East. In most of the Far East, laws permitting gay and lesbian civil unions are many years if not decades away. In Latin America, universal acceptance of homosexuality is a long way off. Jamaica is a hotbed of homophobia. Even in Mexico, the first couple to take advantage of Coahuila’s new civil-union statute were fired from their jobs as sales clerks after their boss realized they were lesbians. The new Mexico City law grants same-gender civil unions property and inheritance rights, but not the right to adopt children.
. . .
Tolerance is now the majority, at least among the young. A 2005 poll by the Mitofsky market-research firm found that 50 percent of all Mexicans between the ages of 18 and 29 supported proposals to allow gay marriage…
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Posted by: Sapphocrat
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September 8, 2007
Protests in Berlin to Save Iranian Lesbian From Deportation
An Iranian lesbian seeking asylum in Germany is to be deported, according to a recent decision by German authorities. Homosexuality is punishable by death is Iran. A protest vigil organized by the German Lesbian and Gay Association (LSVD) and attended by about 50 people was held today outside the Ministry for the Interior and Sports. The Iranian woman had sought asylum in Germany because of the imminent danger of execution in Iran. Authorities did not believe her, and, according to the newspaper TAZ, she is now to be deported to Turkey. A possible reprieve may come from the Commission for Cases of Hardship, however any resulting finding would be a mere recommendation.
In speeches by members of numerous German political parties Germany’s deportation policy was portrayed as racist and homophobic. In order to be granted asylum, it is necessary to bring incontrovertible proof of “irreversible homosexuality” (!), which is realistically nearly impossible, according to the speakers.
. . .
Further, speakers criticized the absurd methods used by authorities to obtain proof of homosexuality; officials had telephones the mother of the woman in Iran to ask her if her daughter was indeed a lesbian, which the mother of course denied. Naturally, the negative reply from a parent was not at all surprising, . . . considering that the penalty for homosexuality in Iran is death.
See also:
Iranian lesbian threatened with deportation in Britain could find refuge in Italy
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Posted by: Sapphocrat
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