“For the most part, any homosexual behaviour was considered sinful by medieval society, and often laws against sodomy prescribed harsh penalties such as castration and execution.” In 1365, a young 15 year old Italian boy Giovanni di Giovanni was executed after the Black Death outbreak in Florence. Religious leaders blamed sodomites for bringing this horrible disease to Florence causing them to kill everyone who was guilty of committing a homosexual act. Giovannis punishment consisted of him marching around town on the back of a donkey, then publicly castrated, followed by a red-hot iron cast to be inserted into his anus stating, “that part of the body where he allowed himself to be known in sodomitical practice.” The story behind the hatred towards homosexuals comes from the bible story of Sodom and Gomorrah. In Genesis 19 it tells the story of a town named Sodom in which it was filled with sin. Many of the sins were sex based. For example, one of the sins was that the people wanted to absorb an Angel 's powers and in order to gain these supernatural powers they would consider raping an Angel when they came to visit. The citizens of Sodom would participate in beastiality, sexual acts of degradation , male rape towards their visitors, threats of mass rape, and the engagement in consensual homosexual acts. To punish the “horrible” sins practiced in Sodom, God destroyed the city with fire and brimstone and killed all the people of Sodom, even innocent children and infants. According to religioustolerence.org this was a common theme in the book of Genesis. Where God not only punished the guilty but also the innocent (i.e. the murder of innocent children and infants). The reason behind why homosexuality is seen as a crime punishable by mutilation and execution, is because it is stated in the bible Leviticus
“For the most part, any homosexual behaviour was considered sinful by medieval society, and often laws against sodomy prescribed harsh penalties such as castration and execution.” In 1365, a young 15 year old Italian boy Giovanni di Giovanni was executed after the Black Death outbreak in Florence. Religious leaders blamed sodomites for bringing this horrible disease to Florence causing them to kill everyone who was guilty of committing a homosexual act. Giovannis punishment consisted of him marching around town on the back of a donkey, then publicly castrated, followed by a red-hot iron cast to be inserted into his anus stating, “that part of the body where he allowed himself to be known in sodomitical practice.” The story behind the hatred towards homosexuals comes from the bible story of Sodom and Gomorrah. In Genesis 19 it tells the story of a town named Sodom in which it was filled with sin. Many of the sins were sex based. For example, one of the sins was that the people wanted to absorb an Angel 's powers and in order to gain these supernatural powers they would consider raping an Angel when they came to visit. The citizens of Sodom would participate in beastiality, sexual acts of degradation , male rape towards their visitors, threats of mass rape, and the engagement in consensual homosexual acts. To punish the “horrible” sins practiced in Sodom, God destroyed the city with fire and brimstone and killed all the people of Sodom, even innocent children and infants. According to religioustolerence.org this was a common theme in the book of Genesis. Where God not only punished the guilty but also the innocent (i.e. the murder of innocent children and infants). The reason behind why homosexuality is seen as a crime punishable by mutilation and execution, is because it is stated in the bible Leviticus