Somehow I doubt that it was that simple, but for historical argument I'll agree. But what the Jews did is beside the point. If the Bible was produced by God then it's the interpretation that matters. What a bunch of murdering Jews who interpreted it one way did is no different than what a bunch of preaching, hateful Evangelicals do with it now. There is clearly room for it to be interpreted differently and it was probably the views of the times that dictated how the Jews chose to interpret it.
(Thank you for discussing this, btw... the discussion is really poking and stretching in different directions than what i normally hear.)
Here is where I am coming from: Why do we need to interpret it at all?
If it was just a code of law written to govern the ancient Israelites, it has no bearing on me. I am not part of their theocracy. And those in the US live in a democracy (well, technically a republic of sorts, I guess). Even if they are Christians, the OT law was a legal document based on moral beliefs, and legally does not apply to us.
Technically no one here is really "under that law" -- and especially not, if you don't consider yourself a Christian or a Jew.
And I do think it was that simple.
Remember when Achan took gold and items (not very many, actually) dedicated to destruction to JHVH, and they searched the ENTIRE camp, eventually using lots to divine who did it, and they found what he'd done... and even though he 'fessed up, the community immediately stoned him and all of his relatives to death right there? There was no waiting period, no defense.
If they didn't catch you in homosexual union, then you were okay, but if you got caught in the act, there was nothing to discuss. Punishment, I think, was swift and irrevocable. I can imagine they would use suspicions to observe suspects... in order to catch them in the act, and then punish them. They couldn't punish for hearsay; and the eyewitness was undeniable.
A friend and I were discussing the "soul" thing and abortion and birth control, and I've just recently become aware of how little we have really understood (as a human race) about the creation of human beings until perhaps the last century.
Genetics were not really on radar until recently, all things considered. One problem that Darwin faced with his evolution theory was the method of transmission and how new beings were created at ALL.
For a long time, people thought women were just incubators at best, and the person came from the man. And once sperm was discovered (due to the invention of the microscope), the quality of focus was still not good, it looked like there was something inside the sperm, and people would draw pictures of sperm with full-fledged adult men inside of them, waiting to be born after being dispensed into the woman.
So just think, back in ancient Israel, of all the baggage attached to things. A man masturbating or spilling his seed was destroying zillions of formed human souls. And a man who is spilling his seed inside another man is doing the same. Only an act of heterosexual intercourse is honoring the life that the man is spilling.
[This needs some work because I've never stated it before, but do you see the implications of why these laws might have existed and what made them so wrong? It's fascinating to consider.]