The death penalty for anal sex. It happened to the Breda city painter Charles de Lasco (48), father of four children, in 1639. This sexual act was then strictly forbidden. It is one of the stories of LGBTQIA+’ers from then and now, which have been central since Friday in a walk through Breda.
The Bredaase LGBTQIA+history goes about five centuries ago. At the time, ‘sodomy’ was mentioned: sex that could not lead to posterity. Even masturbating was the death penalty.
The Eindhoven cultural anthropologist Luc Brants Spitte, commissioned by LGBTQIA+interest organization COC Tilburg-Breda, through the City Archives. He previously examined the queer history of Eindhoven and Tilburg. The stories are in the book ‘Five centuries of queer Breda: from loner to community’, which was presented on the international day against homophobia, bifobia, transphobia and intersex phobia. A corresponding walk can be walked since Friday.
The book and the walk consider the period of ‘Sodomie’. City painter Charles de Lasco is convicted in 1639 for anal sex. That is then strictly forbidden. He is the only one in Breda ever convicted of it.
“Just like in other parts of Brabant, homosexuality was a big taboo.”
Little is known about him. “Just like in other parts of Brabant, homosexuality was a big taboo,” says Brants. All procedural documents around the Lasco were therefore destroyed. Three centuries later the verdict was found.
Presumably the lasco had homosex, but that was never proven. His unknown bed partner may also have been his own wife who would use anal sex as contraception. The older couple already had two noments. But the rules stated that “it was no longer possible to do it more than for conception was strictly necessary,” according to documents from the City Archives.
So anal sex was out of the question. Tied to a pole, the lasco was strangled with a loop around its neck on the Stedelijk Galgenveld. Normally only female criminals received that punishment. They were not hung up, because then the audience could look under their skirt. Because the lasco’s masculinity was questioned, he was executed as a woman.
It is one of the stories that is discussed in Brants’ book, which has been a walk since Friday. Among other things, it leads along the KMA, a former breeding space for men’s prostitution.
“Many men were finished around the KMA.”
“Soldiers were picked up around the barracks and then” finished “,” says Brants. “In particular, conscripts prostituted for coffee, tea, cigarettes and money.”
Stories from contemporary LGBTQIA+community are also reviewed. COC Tilburg-Breda wants to show that LGBTQI+people have always been there and thus create more acceptance and tolerance. Because there are still steps to be taken in Breda, Ferket notes.
Last year an apartment went up in flames when a rainbow flag was set on fire. A rainbow bench in Stadspark Valkenberg was repeatedly damaged and damaged, after which the municipality finally had it removed. “After five centuries, it is unfortunately not self -evident that you can be openly yourself.”
The exhibition of Queermakers in the Nieuwe Veste cultural center, which is part of the walk, can be visited until 1 June, the first day of Pride month.