[quote=@The Harbinger of Ferocity]
[@Penny]

In address prior to this current change of conversation.

I would not put the various choices of sexuality under the same scrutiny and social battle as segregation or its clearly related struggles of interracial marriage. That comparison is so far off in scope that to equate the two is to demean a huge number of people who had legitimate grievances and experienced [i]actual[/i] suffering and legally backed discrimination, despite being no different than skin tone. Members who suffer from sexual dysphoria are not treated as some rate of second class citizens because of their condition or personal orientations; they receive the exact same treatment as anyone else across the board. It goes without saying that they can engage in their activities covertly while race, the very comparison this was made against, simply cannot.
[/quote]
...what? I'm fairly certain the fact that my friend couldn't get married to her wife and thus couldn't see her when she was dying in the hospital is legally backed discrimination. The fact that she had to hide her lover from her entire family because she'd be disowned is generally kinda horrible, too. We aren't treated as second-class citizens because of our orientation or identity? Tell my girlfriend, who had her car fucked up by some guy because she's trans. To my friend who was kicked out of his house when his parents found out he had a boyfriend. To all the people who live with the knowledge that they're more likely to be the victims of violent crime or murder simply for existing as themselves. Maybe it's possible to hide, but I'd generally think that doesn't minimize nor invalidate the suffering. Try growing up gay in the Bible Belt. Telling the kid who hears they'll go to hell from their preacher or their dad tell them they'd kill their kid if they turned out gay. Nah, not persecuted based on orientation, not at all.

Sure, we queer folk might never be the majority, or even mainstream. Does that mean we do not deserve respect? 4 percent is still 4/100 people, roughly 280,000,000 people around the globe. 

And I will [i]gladly[/i] say I will not respect people who are discriminatory. You reject leftists for rejecting bigots, yet you reject the alt-right for being bigots? That's...a strange, strange philosophy, though I do guess you can only truly discriminate against race, right? Nothing else that's inborn and hurts nobody, yet still gets you discriminated against...

Oh, yeah, you used the word 'choices.' Because I so very much chose to be attracted to women, just like my girlfriend chose to have gender dysphoria. Unless you're saying that our choice is to act on our sexuality and we should force ourselves to live a life of celibacy/dysphoria unless we want to be ostracized.

(Edit: lol checking everyone's profiles I'm currently the only progressive around. Hope y'all have fun trying to convince a 18 year old lesbian that she doesn't deserve any legal protection/hasn't been legitimately discriminated against/etc. Meanwhile, I'mma use a combination of empathy and fact. :))