As marriages are (generally) not arranged in this country, all marriages are about personal preferences. Mildred Loving, a black woman, chose a white man to marry. She was as free to marry a black man as any gay person is free to marry a straight person of the opposite sex. The case is completely relevant, and saying that "race is not a choice" is immaterial to the matter; the trial was not about race, it was about the freedom to marry the person of one's choosing.