sentences:  Towards the 17th century, there was harsh prejudice and laws towards those who were found guilty or speak openly of being involved in same-sex activity.English voyager and author William Lithgow, writing in March 1616, says a Spanish soldier and a Maltese teenage boy were publicly "burnt to ashes" for confessing to have practised sodomy together.As a consequence, and fear of a similar outcome, about a hundred males involved in same-sex prostitution sailed to Sicily the following day.