Magnitus: I totally get what you are saying. The gender field is not supposed to be a hip thing, it's just supposed to be informative.
The more options there are, the more informative the gender field is.
It's along the same lines as a question of agreement. You can have "agree" or "disagree," but that isn't as detailed as a question that includes "agree," "strongly agree," "N/A," "disagree," and "strongly disagree." It may be a "hip thing" to you, but to the people who identify with one of the given options, it's a signal that they matter.
HGiles: I don't loathe people who are in homosexual relationships. I think they are making a bad decision. This is the part you aren't getting. I can disagree with what someone is doing, and still respect them as a human being. You are not extending me the same level of courtesy. Instead, you are being insulting and mocking me. Not being able to follow through on your own stated belief that people should be tolerant is hypocritical.
Unless you mean your last paragraph to say that you don't consider people who disagree with you to be deserving of the same level of courtesy as people who do agree with you. If so, you're kind of proving my original point that there are liberals can be just as bigoted and discriminatory as some conservatives.
First of all, sexuality is not a decision. If it were, nobody would choose to be gay because nobody would want to be treated differently. When you assume that homosexuals have control over something that nobody else can control (because nobody woke up one morning and decided to be straight, and anyone who says otherwise is a liar), you aren't really respecting them as human beings (unless you're saying it's a superpower or something).
Just because you say you do doesn't make it so. Your condemnation of homosexual relationships is like condemning interracial relationships; like everyone else, interracial couples don't choose their sexuality, but they do choose to have sex, and that's no different from homosexual couples. Why is it okay for one couple to have sex, while it's a "bad choice" for another to do the same?
Secondly, intolerance of intolerance is not as bad as "standard" intolerance. Saying that they are equal is like saying it's just as bad to hate a racist as it is for a racist to hate people based on race, and that's stupid.
To me, "tolerance" is crap that should be replaced with acceptance and/or understanding. It doesn't have any positive implications for whatever is being tolerated when used in any other context - tolerance to pain, tolerance to cold, tolerance to heat, and the list goes on.
It's kind of mind boggling that PC gamers who complain about the lack of options in console games (and the restrictions that platforms like Steam and Origin entail) are whining about more options.