Queer History 137: Venetian Trials and Executions for Sodomy

The burning smoke billows across the Piazzetta San Marco, carrying with it the nauseating sweetness of charred human flesh that makes even hardened Venetians gag and cover their faces with silk handkerchiefs. Another "sodomite" writhes in the flames between the granite columns – his screams echoing off the pink and white marble of the Doge's Palace while his executioners feed more kindling to ensure the agony lasts. The bastards have perfected this grotesque theater: green wood that burns slow and hot, chains positioned to keep the victim upright as flames lick at their feet, then calves, then thighs, the progression deliberate as a fucking symphony of suffering.

For three blood-soaked centuries, La Serenissima – the "Most Serene Republic" – transformed itself into Europe's most savage killing ground for queer men. The irony burns hotter than their pyres: a city built on tolerance for foreign merchants, exotic goods, and cosmopolitan exchange that systematically slaughtered its own son…