I don't have any control over what other people do, and they don't represent me or my faith.

We live in the age of Noah (a.s.) in the sense that a flood of distraction accosts us. It is a slow and subtle drowning. For those who notice it, they engage in the remembrance of God. The rites of worship and devotion to God's remembrance (dhikr) are planks of the ark. When Noah (a.s.) started to build his ark, his people mocked him and considered him a fool. But he kept building. He knew what was coming. And we know too.

Desire is an attempt to feel the void.

Practice makes permanent, not perfect. If you practice the wrong thing, you make the wrong act permanent.

I definitely have sympathy for people who are struggling. I've met with young Muslims who have told me about their struggles.

There's no specific punishment in the books of fiqh (Islamic laws) that relate to homosexuality per se. They apply to any illicit sexual relations, including prohibited heterosexual acts like adultery. And the punishments are strong, but they are legal fictions because they are impossible to prove. You need four witnesses to say they witnessed (sexual) penetration. In what circumstances are you going to find someone to testify to that?

Why do we need to justify God's existence? He exists. We need to justify our own existence.