reply from MassuhD to tonycali:
Tonycali,
I am involved in the arts professionally.
As such, I have worked with, worked for, collaborated with, and coexisted with homosexuals of every variety.
Personally, I believe that a certain small portion of them are "born that way" from their genetic makeup; the rest I believe result from being "seduced" and "recruited" into the life style when they appear weak and vulnerable due to their social insecurities, poorly formed self-images, and/or other problems associated with puberty.
Do I accept their sexuality & sexual practices as normal?
No.
Do I consider their lifestyles "just a matter of choice...equal to all other lifestyles?
No.
Do I accept them as human beings with personalities and feelings; not to mention great talents?
Yes I do.
Nevertheless, I would discourage my children or students from "over-associating" with them, and especially would try to prevent my children from "identifying" with them as a "social reference group".
Unlike most in the Muslim world, we Jews have not literally obeyed the commands in Torah "they shall be put to death" for quite some time now.
I have read in Talmudic arguments that the phrase "they shall be put to death" can be interpreted to mean that the Creator can or will do this to their souls; not necessarily that we ourselves must do this to them.
When Moshe was advised to establish judges over Israel, he set down the edicts that "every judge was to make judgements according to their generations"; which again, Talmudic discourse has indicated to mean that Torah can and must be interpreted in accord to the constantly changing world in which Jews would find themselves; each new generation perceiving the old one as "passe" and somewhat old fashioned.
How to do effectively make interpretive judgements of Jewish Law, without "throwing the baby out with the bathwater", has to this day remained a great challenge to modern Judaism.
Even so, the Law remains on the books, and as the People Of The Book, we cling to Torah throughout the generations as our "lifeboat" and greatest possession; without our Torah, we are cut adrift forever in stormy seas.
The Talmud states that in the End Of Days, the Torah would be the modern Ark which would preserve the nation Israel from destruction.
A Jew who forsakes the Torah as his heritage, is soon cut off from his people and is considered formally "dead" in Judaism.