mdd, and others, I’m not covering up for baalei averah. Their whole point, in this pride business, is to dafka NOT cover up. They don’t need or care for my “defense”, as you portray it.
I’m not arguing that it isn’t an issur. It is. I’m not arguing that it is not as severe an issur as other dinei nefashos. It is. If I gave that impression, I retract it.
What I am decrying is the reaction of the frum oilem to this while it ignores other problems closer to home. If the Torah describes business corruption with the same loshon as this, and it does, WHY IS THAT TRANSGRESSION ALL BUT IGNORED, while this becomes a cause celebre? And I might add – it is the secular law and the secular freedoms that are being criticized, the same ones that protect us from persecution. We do not live in a halachic state, and moreover we are not discussing the halachic ramifications of this activity – they are perfectly clear. We ARE discussing support for it in the public realm, and I am raising the issue of the fascination the frum oilem has with this issue to the detriment of addressing far more pertinent and pressing issues described with the same condemnatory loshon in the Torah.
And for those who like mdd say that it is because this is more chomur and incurs the death penalty that they deal with it more prominently, I have to ask – Are you adressing chilul shabbos (by non jews, no less, at stores like target or walmart) in the same way, or even BY Jews? It is dinei nefashos, and it happens EVERY WEEK right in front of you, so why aren’t you out there protesting or boycotting?
What about palmreaders and fortunetellers? also chayav misah. Are you addressing their transgressions? Have you tracked down every yid who ever hit a parent? Cursed a parent? Do you spend as much energy confronting the Jews for Jesus crew, who are definitely chayyav misha and are active in our communities? (I know that I do, this one especially). How about those who flout the authority of a beis din? Devarim yud ches calls for the death penalty. What about protesting in front of catholic churches, which transgress the first of the shevah mitzvos bnei noach?
All of these are mideoraisah. I am not even going to get into derabonon.
There is at least one reason you don’t, and that is that you live in a country with rational laws and you respect dina demalchusa dina.
So if you are not a hypocrite about what it is about this particular transgression that makes it a priority, it must be something else. Is it the way the Torah describes it, as a toeivah, an abomination? If so, I ask you to address my original question about other things described the same way.
Or maybe, just maybe, it isn’t that either, it is rather social and political motivation that impels you – and that is your prerogative, I won’t criticize you for it. Just don’t wrap it up in Torah to justify yourself.