Of course this provoked ire from Christians because it fails to ask the question "And how do you love God? By obeying his Commandments regarding sexual morality?"
No, it does not and therefore calls evil good.
Do you think God loves those kind and gentle people with a genuine heart or bitter, narrow-minded, one-way dogmatic people who frown, condemn and judge others? Perhaps God loves both.
Leave God to sort it out. Otherwise, we’re no better than the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
Oh, I don’t know that telling homosexuals that God “loves them just the way they are” is necessarily unorthodox. It depends on the spirit in which it is offered. “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” God does love those that have fallen into the sin of homosexuality. He wants to save them and unburden them of it.