Giovanni di Giovanni is one of the younger victims of the campaign against sodomy

Sodomy

Sodomy is an anal or other copulation-like act, especially between male persons or between a man and animal, and one who practices sodomy is a "sodomite"...

, waged in Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

 since the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

.

He was convicted by the Podestà

Podestà

Podestà is the name given to certain high officials in many Italian cities, since the later Middle Ages, mainly as Chief magistrate of a city state , but also as a local administrator, the representative of the Emperor.The term derives from the Latin word potestas, meaning power...

 court of being the passive partner of a number of different men. He was labeled "a public and notorious passive sodomite." His punishment was to be paraded on the back of an ass, then to be publicly castrated

Castration

Castration is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which a male loses the functions of the testicles or a female loses the functions of the ovaries.-Humans:...

. Finally, he was to have his anus burned with a red-hot iron (or, as the sentence read: "[punished] in that part of the body where he allowed himself to be known in sodomitical practice.") It is presumed he did not survive the ordeal.

See also

• History of Early Christianity and Homosexuality
• History of sexuality
• Homophobia
  Homophobia
  Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...
  
  
• List of people executed for homosexuality
• Violence against gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and the transgendered
  Violence against gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and the transgendered
  Persecution of homosexuals may occur either via legislation prohibiting homosexual acts, or by ad hoc intimidation, mobbing, assault or lynching motivated by homophobia ....