It isn't the same thing. Including different races doesn't say anything about a race except that they exist.
Including Homosexuals in the game is, in the current political environment, an outright political statement.
Why is that any different? How is including homosexuality in the game say anything about it except that it exists?
In this game because it is making a statement on nature versus nurture, the normality of such, as well as how many people have it.
Well...
1. It's more a statement of, "It's not worth programming all the environmental factors." Or else a statement of, "Sorry about taking X months, but I've finished adding all the factors which affect attributes, preferences, sexuality, build, and so forth."
2. "Normalcy?" Cultural. Dwarves are so convenient as to be a fictional culture.
3. How many people have it? Do a bit of research. That simple. No statement needed.
Just remember FATAL.
Does anyone remember FATAL?
FATAL did this badly, so my advice to Toady is, read FATAL and don't do any of that.
You'd better not be saying that Toady shouldn't not add homosexuality just because FATAL had it. Because that would be completely moronic.
Would it be a "political statement" to include homosexuality in the game? It would be an even bigger statement to leave it out.
Now adays? Nope. Leaving it out is pretty neutral.
Leaving it out would be like saying that it doesn't fit anywhere in the Dwarf Fortress multiverse. Which would be quite big, given how diverse and all-encompassing Dwarf Fortress aims to be.
Only through inferrence. It says nothing passively.
Guess what? Adding it needs someone else to infer something into it to be a statement.
Seriously, no one says that making kobolds idiots and generally inferior to dwarves is a political statement on racism, nor that large nations taking over the entire world until they eliminate all hostile ones and trade peacefully is a statement on war or globalization. Why would adding homosexuality be a political statement in and of itself?