Curious about different views on homosexuality

[Angrboda]

Actually, the bible doesn't outlaw homosexuality. It arguably says something about male homosexual acts, but it's not entirely clear. The bible says nothing about lesbianism whatsoever. And if you dig into Ancient Near Eastern culture of the time, the concept of a sexual orientation didn't really exist. They understood sexual acts, but not sexual orientation as an identity, aside from the expectation of men to perform the role of head of a family. And it's entirely possible that it was their role as men and husbands which was the issue with homosexual acts, not the sexual desire, as it was more acceptable to engage in male homosexual sex if you were the penetrating partner; if you were the receiving partner, you were abdicating your role as a male and a husband, and accepting the role of the female, emasculating yourself. Not so for the other partner. (And this echoes various sexual roles in Hellenic culture of the time, involving pederastic 'mentors' of young men.) And if you look at the language used to describe male homosexual acts, it was the same language used to describe worshiping other gods — it was the language of adultery and infidelity, the breaking of accepted role norms.

There are many factors which influence homophobia, including religion and lack of exposure, but homophobia is very prevalent in male adolescents, and at that stage, it is theorized to involve questions of sexual identity formation and anxiety about sexual roles. So there are a variety of sources for homophobia, not all of them religious. And given that the anxiety about sexual roles is a strong component in male adolescents, and most religious prohibitions focus on male homosexuality, it's entirely plausible that religions might simply inherit the trait from normal processes implicit in male sexual maturation, rather than create it ex nihilo.