Oh Lilly, you've opened the Pandora's Box.
All I want to say regarding homosexuals and the Bible is that they aren't the same concepts that we have today. First of all, the term "homosexual" is an incorrect term to use at all in the Bible, considering it was a term coined in 1874 in Germany. Before that, homosexual activity was believed to be carried out by rebellious or depraved heterosexuals.
Regardless, in terms of Sodom and Gomorrah, the sin is not homosexuality. The sin is inhospitality and, assuming that a homosexual act was done against the men (which is up for debate), it was the device to humiliate. The "sin" was not the homosexual act; it was the act of hostility towards Lot's guests. The hostility could have been done in any sort of ways, and inhospitality towards strangers was a grave sin back then. Look at the city of Gibeah in Judges, for instance. It is a mirror of Sodom and Gomorrah up to the part where the men demand to "know" the other men in the house. The protagonist (I forget his name) objects and offers a female concubine in their place. The men accept the concubine, they violently gang rape her, and rip her to shreds. God then commands an army to destroy Gibeah. Are we know to believe that, due to the sin of Gibeah, that now all heterosexual acts are henceforth sinful?
The other obvious mentions of homosexuality are in context of idol worship, as group sex in the temples of their gods were very common (it was believed that if they had sex, it brought them closer to the gods). Knowing this, it is no wonder the Biblical writers saw homosexual activity as evil.
But we should know differently. Homosexual activity, in the present, is not done in context of humiliating people we don't like or to worship strange gods. Quite often it is done in love, and should be put at the same level as heterosexual relationships. Just as much as heterosexual activity can be abused (all you have to do is watch "Jerry Springer" for evidence of that), homosexual activity can be abused. But homosexual acts done in context of "love," in context of Romans 13, should not be declared sinful. "Love does no evil to the neighbor." In contrast, I would say that homophobia is really the true violation of the spirit of Sodom and Gomorrah, not to mention Romans 13. Is that not inhospitality to our neighbors?
Oh the Pandora's Box. Overall, though, you should listen to your conscience in dealing with any moral matters. If you believe it to be wrong, then, by all means, don't practice it. However, if you are straight, I have a feeling you won't be having a same-sex relationship anytime soon.
Melon
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"He had lived through an age when men and women with energy and ruthlessness but without much ability or persistence excelled. And even though most of them had gone under, their ignorance had confused Roy, making him wonder whether the things he had striven to learn, and thought of as 'culture,' were irrelevant. Everything was supposed to be the same: commercials, Beethoven's late quartets, pop records, shopfronts, Freud, multi-coloured hair. Greatness, comparison, value, depth: gone, gone, gone. Anything could give some pleasure; he saw that. But not everything provided the sustenance of a deeper understanding." - Hanif Kureishi, Love in a Blue Time
