Via Salt Lake City’s Fox affiliate:

In at least one big and bruising culture-war battle, the Mormon church wants to call a partial truce. Convening a rare press conference on Tuesday at church headquarters in Salt Lake City, Mormon leaders pledged to support anti-discrimination laws for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people, as long the laws also protect the rights of religious groups. In exchange, the Mormon church wants gay rights advocates — and the government — to back off. “When religious people are publicly intimidated, retaliated against, forced from employment or made to suffer personal loss because they have raised their voice in the public square, donated to a cause or participated in an election, our democracy is the loser,” said Elder Dallin Oaks, a member of the church’s Quorum of Twelve Apostles. “Such tactics are every bit as wrong as denying access to employment, housing or public services because of race or gender.”

Let me be fucking crystal clear here. The Mor(m)on Church is in no position to negotiate, let alone to negotiate from any position of strength.

After spending MILLIONS of dollars to fight LGBT rights. After ruining countless lives by sending gay and lesbian Mormons to “re-education camps”, using shock therapy, and in some cases even lobatomizing gay men. They have the nerve to try to strike a deal now that their “righteous” facade is crumbling and people are truly seeing how hateful and evil they are by saying: We still want to oppress you, but we’ll try to be nicer about it and give you some limited recognition as human beings.

If you ever needed the definition of a “STRAWMAN” this unadulterated  BULLSHIT from the LDS church is it.

Openly gay Utah State  Sen. and founder of Equality Utah,  Jim Dabakis who sent out a statement saying:

“I am proud that the LDS Church has seen fit to lead the way in non-discrimination. As a religious institution, Mormons have had a long history of being the victims of discrimination and persecution. They understand more than most the value and strength of creating a civil society that judges people by the content of their character and their ability to do a job. Since serving as a Senator, and as the only LGBT member of the Utah legislature, I can say one of the joys of the job has been to meet and enjoy the company of LDS officials. I know that together, we can build a community that strongly protects religious organizations constitutional liberties and, in addition, creates a civil, respectful, nurturing culture where differences are honored and everyone feels welcome. Now, lets roll up our sleeves, get to work and pass a statewide Non-Discrimination Bill.”

Just goes to show you that even gay democrats can be disgusting self-loathing quislings too.