Further trials in the Aegean Sea.

No lesbians in Lesbos? Sounds almost as strange as barring Christian evangelicals from the campus of Bob Jones University. But the mayor of one of the Greek island's cities took a British tour group to court in September to block 100 sapphic sojourners from indulging in a stay at a local resort. Eressos mayor Polydoros Abatzis sought to block the group from a stay at the Aeolian Village Hotel after the resort was billed as a "paradise of gay love." Abatzis claimed that such activities would damage the city's image.

After threats of jail sentences and fines, the mayor relented when the tour group pledged it "would not indulge in excesses that would upset local sentiments and damage the island's tourism image." The Greek Aegean island, sometimes known as Mitilini, is a revered locale for lesbians because the homoerotic poet Sappho was born there and hosted a school for women on the island 2,600 years ago.

The flap arose just days after an unrelated case in Turkey, where police stopped a group of over 800 gay tourists from visiting ancient ruins at Ephesus and ordered them back onto a cruise ship. Some passenger said the police weren't necessarily antigay but, similar to the Eressos mayors issues, felt that a few men who disembarked in drag offended local sensibilities.