רבי יהודה אומר אלו שלשים צדיקי אומות העולם שאומות העולם מתקיימים עליהם עולא אמר אלו שלשים מצות שקבלו עליהם בני נח ואין מקיימין אלא שלשה אחת שאין כותבין כתובה לזכרים
Rabbi Yehuda says: These are the thirty righteous individuals among the nations of the world, in whose merit the nations of the world continue to exist. Ulla says: These are the thirty mitzvos that the descendants of Noah initially accepted upon themselves; but they fulfill only three of them. One of these three mitzvot is that they do not write a marriage contract for a wedding between two males; although they violate the prohibition against engaging in homosexuality, they are not so brazen as to write a marriage contract as for a regular marriage.... [Chullin 92a]
בויקרא רבה (כג ט): "רב הונא בשם רבי יוסי אמר: דור המבול לא נמחו מן העולם אלא על ידי שכתבו גומסיות (שטרות נישואין) לזכר ולנקבה/ ולבהמה".
The generation of the Mabul was wiped out ONLY b/c they made marriage contracts for same sex marriage [according to the commentaries on the Medrash] or acc. to an alternate text "between man and animal".
I saw a video where a man with Orthodox smicha, a beard, peyos and big black kippah was saying a drasha at a celebration of two people of the same gender who want to think that they are getting married. He expressed his tremendous joy and how happy he was to participate.
This is weird. Why would someone celebrate a sin where he is otherwise so pious??? [I happen to know that this man was otherwise pious]. Not just one sin but an ongoing sin for life? A sin which effectively limits the proliferation of the Jewish people and declares a protest against one of the most fundamental [and thus first] mitzvos in the Torah? [See the sefer Avnei Derech 14/210 if it is Halachically permissible to participate in such an event].
My explanation is that society has voted that this is OK and even a cause for celebration so this man [and many many others] was swept along with the tide [if you will excuse the pun alluding to the Mabul].
If tomorrow it becomes in style to marry animal it will gain more and more popularity until there are parades for "bestial pride" and people will get very offended if you say that there is anything wrong with a man having relations with his beloved cat. "Why can't he love whomever he chooses to love?" will be the mantra.
Or another one popular today: "We must love and respect all people regardless of their behavior". That is another way of saying that people can do whatever they want and there is no objective measure of right and wrong, good and evil - which is clear and open heresy.
Nobody is saying that we should spit on people who engage in forbidden acts of lust, just that we know that Hashem told us that such acts are evil and if one falls and commits such a sin - he must repent, not declare his pride that he ejaculated on another man רח"ל.
Research has shown again and again that people think what others in their society think. That is human nature. Until not so long ago homosexuality was considered a mental illness and required therapy. Today it is considered just as normal and even preferred to heretosexuality [there are no "Straight Pride" parades]. What changed? Society's values.
The primary sin of the עגל הזהב was not the actual calf, explains the Sforno, but the dancing around the calf.
We all fall. We all have weaknesses and a Yetzer Hara. That is OK. We are but human. The problem is creating an ideology justifying sin. THAT is not the result of a momentary passion but a thought out rebellion against Hashem, His Torah and our tradition. To CELEBRATE a terrible aveira is unconscionable. There is a famous passage in the Maharshal where he proves from the Gemara in Bava Kamma [38a] that we should sooner DIE than falsify the Torah - which is exactly what people do when they justify evil behavior. To proclaim that one halacha in the Torah no longer applies is to proclaim that every halacha in the Torah subject to our judgment whether it obligates us. So the whole Torah turns into a book of suggestions that we can take or leave ח"ו. That is the logical consequence of rendering even one mitzva or aveira void. People who champion any aveira can't believe in Torah Mi-Sinai, regardless of how they act in other areas of life. They also can't believe in שכר ועונש. If they really cared about and loved people engaged in משכב זכר they would tell them that they will suffer forever b/c of this act and to please stop! If it was proven that משכב זכר caused cancer then they would be discouraged by society and anyone who cares. Gehenom is much much much worse than cancer. The Ramban says that 70 years of יסורי איוב aren't as bad as one second in Gehenom. Today it is not in vogue to talk about punishment. But we can't deny that it is an integral part of our tradition. One possibility for such people according to Kabbala is to come back in a Gigul as a ... rabbit.
Not something to look forward to.
People with same sex attraction deserve our sympathy b/c they suffer terribly in ways that the straight among us can never imagine - but that doesn't permit them to act on their desires and lusts.
The Navi [ירמיהו ב לה] decries the tendency to deny that we have done wrong.
וַתֹּֽאמְרִי֙ כִּ֣י נִקֵּ֔יתִי אַ֛ךְ שָׁ֥ב אַפּ֖וֹ מִמֶּ֑נִּי הִנְנִי֙ נִשְׁפָּ֣ט אוֹתָ֔ךְ עַל־אׇמְרֵ֖ךְ לֹ֥א חָטָֽאתִי׃
You say, “I have been acquitted;
Surely, His anger has turned away from me.”
Lo, I will bring you to judgment
For saying, “I have not sinned.”
Surely, His anger has turned away from me.”
Lo, I will bring you to judgment
For saying, “I have not sinned.”
What would he say about making a philosophy justifying wrongdoing??
The Zohar Hakadosh says that in the future in the last generation before Moshiach people will be like Sodom and Amora - maybe referring the these same sex unions. [עי' שו"ת מרכבות ארגמן ח"ו סי' ל"ז תשובה מאד מעניינת].
So if you are attracted to the opposite gender - that would be a GREAT reason to be FILLED with gratitude to Hashem, even though it poses constant struggles of שמירת עיניים, שמירת המחשבה and having to restrain oneself from doing what comes so naturally. Just about every human being suffers on some level when it comes to sexuality. There is no way around it. It is part of life. The most powerful eitza we have is to study Torah [רמב"ם הל' איסורי ביאה כ"ב כ"א] and avoid all things that arouse us sexually as much as possible.
May we see the coming of Moshiach and a world where Kedusha and morality reign and where otherwise good people don't think and often act like the lowest of the low.
