The point was to avoid public approval, which was rampant and enforced by kingdoms at the time.
?? Cutting someone's privates off was more popular that executing the deviant?
If the culture is perverted, perversion will be popular for a season, until the abuses become too excessive to ignore.
However, since sodomites and those sympathetic to the perversity have taken over control of all levers of government, there will be no popular correction allowed.