Burn the gays
The Sodom of the North. Homosexuals Were Burned at the Stake in Medieval Bruges
Belgium is one of the most tolerant countries when it comes to LGBTQ rights. But it hasn’t always been that way. Nowhere in Western Europe were homosexual men persecuted as much as in Bruges in the late Middle Ages. Analyze by historian Jonas Roelens shows that the economic crisis, the need for scapegoats and prejudices against foreigners may have played a role in this.
Bruges, 26 January 1558. Two boys, 19-year-old François van Daele and the just 14-year-old Willem de Clerck, were sent to the scaffold. Despite their youth, both were given very heavy sentences. François and Willem were to be flogged until bleeding with rods, and then their hair would be burned off with a glowing hot iron. After these gruelling tortures, the boys were banned from Flanders. Their punishment? They had had ‘unnatural sex’ with a priest. This shocking case offers an intriguing insight into the prosecution of deviant sexuality in the Southern Netherlands, and the importance of social capital in sentencing.
© City Archives of Bruges, Collection G. Michiels, nr. 54
François and Will
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This is an essay on Slow Burn: Gays Against Briggs. Listen to the season here.
It’s hard not to feel a small jealous of queer San Francisco in the 1970s. Those years were a time of rapid growth for the queer mecca of the Western world: Between 1972 and 1977, the urban area gained 100,000 modern LGBTQ+ residents, about a seventh of its entire population. Centered in the Castro, a neighborhood that quickly evolved into a hub of gay being, the queer people in San Francisco was robust enough, dense enough, and resourceful enough to create its have small city within a city.
In the 1970s, TV networks were running some of the first big reports on gay people (and growing gayborhoods appreciate the Castro). They had the vibe of a National Geographic safari. At that time, the concept of gay rights was so new to most Americans that reporters still had to explain to their audiences what it meant. But curiosity was starting to replace the previous decades’ contempt.
The mainstream coverage had one major benefit: Lgbtq+ people across the country were teaching that there were places where they could live occupied, integrated lives, with friend
In the 1970s, San Francisco became a welcoming home for tens of thousands of new lgbtq+ residents—and a modern-day Sodom for the American right. With a moral panic sweeping across the United States, a Florida orange juice spokeswoman inspired an ambitious California politician to launch his own campaign against lesbians and gays—one that would change the course of U.S. history.
(If you—or anyone you know—are in crisis, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, anytime: Dial 988 or visit 988lifeline.org.)
Season 9 of Sluggish Burn was written and produced by Christina Cauterucci. Slow Incinerate is produced by Sophie Summergrad, Kelly Jones, and Joel Meyer.
Josh Levin is the editorial director of Slow Burn.
Derek John is Slate’s executive producer of narrative podcasts.
Susan Matthews is Slate’s executive editor.
Merritt Jacob is our senior technical director. We had engineering help from Patrick Fort and Madeline Ducharme.
Our theme music is composed by Alexis Cuadrado. Artwork by Ivylise Simones, based on an image of Silvana Nova and a poster designed by Larry Hermsen and the Too Much Graphics Collective.
Join host Christina Cauterucci and special guests as they
6 May 1933: Looting of the Institute of Sexology
On 6 May 1933, the Institute of Sexology, an academic foundation devoted to sexological research and the advocacy of queer rights, was broken into and occupied by Nazi-supporting youth. Several days later the entire contents of the library were removed and burned.
The institute was initially occupied by The German Pupil Union, who were a collective of Nazi-supporting youth. Several days later, on 10 May, the entire contents of the library were removed to Berlin’s Bebelplatz Square. That night, along with 20,000 other books across Germany, they were publicly burned in a symbolic attack by Nazi officials on their enemies.
Book burning after looting of the Institute of Sexology
Founded in 1919, the institute had been set up by Magnus Hirschfeld, a world-renowned expert in the emerging discipline of sexology. During its existence, thousands of patients were seen and treated, often for free. The Institute also achieved a global reputation for its pioneering work on transsexual understanding and calls for equality for homosexuals, gender non-conforming people and women. Hirschfield himself was a passionate advocate for homosexua