Dutch Door Action

1730: Dutch Sodomite Massacre

This is some crazy shit I found about the history of gays and lesbians. Apparently, back in the 1700s gays and lesbians were in a biker gang called the "Sodomites" and it seems they ravaged the countrysides looking for small villages and farms to attack with their "Sinful Craft".



In 1730, Dutch officials pressed an accused sodomite into informing on his friends. What they found was an elaborate network of sodomites in the Netherlands' major cities, especially Amsterdam. Under the influence of Calvinism, the state religion, officials feared divine retribution if they did not act quickly to purge sodomites from their midst, so they launched an unprecedented campaign to eliminate sodomites from their cities.

Playing on national fears, a local magistrate, Rudolph de Mepsche, in the tiny village of Faan launched a campaign to eliminate sodomitical sin from the village. The sodomitical network de Mepsche imagined did not exist, but many of the men and boys he interrogated admitted to occasional dalliances perhaps to avoid further torture. By the time he had finished, he had overseen the executions of at least 24 men and boys.



England and France both prosecuted sodomites, but Dutch officials were the most aggressive of all. By the end of the 18th Century, nearly 600 men were convicted of sodomy, and many of the convicts died by execution.