Does being born homosexual really matter in the fight for equality, or is it a way of framing the argument so that homeobigots have one less arrow in their quiver of reasons to discriminate?

I don’t think it matters one bit whether you choose to be gay or are born gay. However I can see the powerful argument to be made if people are born gay, particularly against religion. If we are born innocent and without sin, and we are born gay, then we are following in the path that God chose and homosexuality cannot be a sin or unnatural. However, if we choose to be gay, then we can repent and become heterosexual through choice. (Remember- this is all coming from a mostly straight agnostic).

But what if we frame it differently. What if we frame it the same way we do religion. Religion is a choice, yet we have legal protections in place that prevent people from discriminating on the basis of religion. If you’re an employer you can’t fire all the protestants in your company because you’re an Irish Catholic with a grudge. States cannot set laws baring people from certain religions from marrying. Churches may bar them, but the churches DO NOT provide any legal protections for married people, only states do. (Polygamy is a whole different can of worms- marriage gives two adults permission to speak for each other in case of an emergency and equal responsibility for each other’s well being, in polygamy no clear chain of responsibility can be established fairly. A church may marry more than 2 people to each other, but only one marriage will be recognized as legal and will get the legal benefits of that union.) States can’t even bar two people of different religions from marrying.