Jay Michaelson revisits the story of Sodom and its implications about homosexuality:
[I]f we were to read the story of Sodom with fresh eyes, it’s obvious that homosexual rape is the means, not the ends, of Sodom’s wickedness. Genesis 19 clearly contrasts Lot, who goes above and beyond the requirements of hospitality, with the Sodomites, who do the reverse. Lot insists that strangers dine and rest with him; the Sodomites seek to humiliate them. This emphasis on hospitality is entirely of a piece with what we know of the Ancient Near East where, like today, among Bedouin and Arabs, hospitality is a core value. ...
The men of Sodom’s interest in men is incidental: if they were raging homosexuals, Lot would not offer his daughters in return. Homosexual rape is the way in which they violate hospitality not the essence of their transgression. Reading the story Sodom as being about homosexuality is like reading the story of an axe-murderer and saying it’s about an axe.