I’m not so sure you can look at it as an issue that only 1 to 5 % of the population cares about. Many gays and lesbians have straight friends and family members that also support “gay rights”. That’s the problem from a political perspective. Whatever the GOP decides in terms of its positions on these issues, it’ll have to be reasonable with the rhetoric. (IOW, talking about tradition will do better than criticizing homos as a group.)
Those ‘straight friends and family members that also support gay rights’ are not going to be on our side either. So forget about them. I agree that our rhetoric can be calm and reasoned, but caving in on these issues (and cowering away from criticizing because of political correctness) causes us to lose more votes/support than we ever get from converts.