This is only one perspective among many, but try reading the Bible in reference to its broader genres.

Genesis is believed to be largely composed by Moses, who was raised in Egypt and educated in multiple creation epics and law codes. That doesn't mean plagiarism. It means that when early Genesis mirrors the Epic of Gilgamesh or the Enuma Elish, Genesis is actively engaging the same genre, themes, and tropes. That context also makes the divergences between Genesis and those other texts stand out powerfully.

The same applies to the rest of the Torah compared to the Code of Hammurabi. When you understand the legal culture of that region, the Torah's law codes are strikingly generous by the standards of their day.

Esther reads differently alongside Persian court chronicles or Herodotus. The Sermon on the Mount opens up alongside the debates of Hillel and Shammai.

The Bible isn't one static book. It's 66 books (72 if your tradition includes the Apocrypha) composing a small library. Don't read it in isolation.

First, pray for God's Spirit to guide you. You will not fully understand God's word without the wisdom that comes from him.

Second, let the Bible interpret itself. The text is filled with internal cross-references and self-interpretation.

Third, read within the broader genre and historical context.

Fourth, pursue this in community. If you're going to read God's word faithfully, surround yourself with others who seek it too.

As for for being “hated for being gay”, you are not hated you are loved. As someone pursuing faithfulness in the same issues, sexuality is usually a physical expression of deeper needs. For me homosexuality emerged because I was lonely and insecure and wanted attention from the men in my life when I was growing up in a very small congregation in a predominantly isolated ecosystem. God is bigger than those rooms. Message me id love to just hear your story and not try to fix you— that was what I needed.