To answer your questions webbo;
1. Yes, the punishments were too harsh.
2. It would not have gone so far if the couple were heterosexual.
Also, I wouldn't bother telling people on this site that you aren't homophobic because most of them don't know what it means.
A phobia is an abnormal intense and irrational fear according to my Collins - none of which you have displayed.
It is a sad fact that people are not allowed to criticise homosexuality without being accused of homophobia.
Now personally I find the idea of men sodomising each other pretty bloody abhorrent, weird even, but if that floats their boat, fair play to them. Does that make me a homophobe? No, of course not, but I'm pretty sure there are people on this site who will think it does (ruby for one, who is very quick to bandy about ists, isms and obias with willy nilly and erroneously).