Allah the Exalted said: << فما كان جواب قومه إلآ أن قالوا أخرجوا ءال لوط من قريتكم إنهم أناس يتطهرون >

Allah the Exalted said: [Surah al-Naml: 56].
The answer to the news of *kana* is fronted, and its subject is postponed.
This sentence is for restriction, meaning: the response of his people was not to submit, nor to take a passive stance toward his call, such that they would refrain from acceptance and from opposition. Rather, the response of his people, may Allah protect us from it, was resorting to force and violence [Surah al-Naml: 56], meaning: some of them said to others.
[Surah al-Naml: 56] The actor of "expel" refers to the people of authority and decision-making in the town.
And His saying: [Surah al-Naml: 56] They used this expression to indicate that Lot is not one of you, but rather a sudden, accidental germ in a place, so it must be purified from it. Because Lot, as is well known, was sent to the people of Sodom and was not one of them. For this reason, He said: meaning: those who came and were sent to you and are not from you [Surah al-Naml: 56]. They did not say "from the town," but rather "from your town," to incite them to expel him.
Inciting them to expel him means as if they are saying: This is your town, and this is a man who has newly arrived, and he wants to contradict you and stand against you. Expel him. The town is yours; it is not his.
[Surah al-Naml: 56] The explanation of the benefit in this will come, if Allah wills, because some people, when they are fed up with the calling reformers, say: "Look, this is not your place," or "Do not speak in this mosque, it is not your mosque," or the like.
[Surah al-Naml: 56] The sentence is an explanation of the ruling that preceded it, which is: the command to expel. Expel them. Why? Because they are people who purify themselves from the rear of men. So they made the cause of the punishment something that is among the reasons for lifting the punishment. Indeed, their purification is good and requires praise and commendation, meaning: the beautiful thing is for the one who purifies himself from it. But these people made it the opposite, for they, may Allah protect us from it, are either deviants... they know the truth but did not act upon it, or they are lost... they are led astray from the truth and it is hidden from them. We ask Allah for safety.
The majority: they are deviants, because it is well known among humans that nature abhors it and no one accepts it.
And His saying:
The closest is the latter, because it is the implication of their state... the implication of their state is that they saw this evil as common, and this sin as trivial, so they held onto it. And their saying: [Surah al-Naml: 56] "people" is an indefinite noun, and the evil is not known, and all of this is for the purpose of distancing themselves from it and inciting the expulsion of them.