I see lots of people here recently busily claiming that the cult is "softening their stance" re: LGBTs. From the vantage point of elsewhere (OK, the coast, where people have been more enlightened for quite some time now) it doesn't look like any such thing at all: same old non-zero-sum legislation in favor of the ruling cult, same old gay bashing, same old institutionalized discrimination, same old rhetorical rope-twisting. Let's consider the stances they have "softened from" and compare those side-by-side with the stances they pretend to have softened to.

THEY USED TO SAY:
"We know you homosexuals are out there in our midst and the only way you should act on it is to commit suicide."
(This didn't really work very well after the mid-1990s because everyone else in the world called them on the discrepancy between claiming to be Christian and espousing this murderous, un-Christ-like attitude, so ...)
THEY NOW SAY:
"You can BE homosexual - note that they never, ever use the words "gay", "lesbian", etc. - just don't ACT on it ."
(This lame response, lifted almost entirely from the official Catholic Church's stance, also is already getting short shrift in the real world, because sane people everywhere are thinking "you don't demand that heterosexuals 'don't act on it,' and you don't allow gays to get married thus keeping them from NEVER acting on it, so you are total hypocrites." Thus, this is an equally untenable retreat position not radically different from before.)

THEY USED TO SAY:
"If we discover one of you disgusting loathesome homosexual creatures within our midst we will hound you out of our school, our church, and our families."
(This also stopped playing well in the late 1990s when media and the arts bagan drawing focused public attention to the extreme level of shunning - not to mention outright persecution - that Mormons practice against those they hate and fear. So...)
THEY NOW SAY:
"Fine, go ahead and come out of the closet at BYU, just don't ACT on it...and please read the fine print."
THE FINE PRINT: "Sigh. Go ahead and wear pink Polo shirts and be all effeminate-acting if you must. But if you also feel spied on, looked down on, harassed, judged, inferior, suicidal, and all those other things you OUGHT to be feeling, or if you get beat up or killed on your way to or from school, don't say we didn't warn you that we still consider you a disgusting loathesome creature who is worth more dead than alive. BTW, when was the last time you attended your Bishop-mandated Evergreen meeting?"
(Can somebody please explain how this has a significantly different impact on the daily lives of LGBT Mormon students at YBU than before?)

THEY USED TO SAY:
"If we discover one of you disgusting loathesome homosexual creatures within our midst we will use any means short of physical force to compel you to undergo all sorts of nefarious and destructive treatments designed to - if not to make you completely change from being a homosexual - at least damage you to the point that you will never want an intimate relationship with another human being as long as you live. And if you decide suicide is a better option, well we always told you you were better off that way, and either way you are no longer a problem for us."
(Ah yes, that good ol' Shock Therapy Treatment. It worked so well for everyone else in the Psychology Establishment that by 1980 its use had basically either been repudiated or shelved indefinitely, depending on who you ask. But the Mormons kept using it until as late as 1999-2000, according to reports. They still wholeheartedly embrace those mind-fuck Pray the Gay Away programs, too.)
THEY NOW SAY:
"If we discover one of you disgusting loathesome homosexual creatures within our midst we will use any means short of physical force to compel you to undergo all sorts of nefarious and destructive treatments designed to - if not to make you completely change from being a homosexual - at least damage you to the point that you will never want an intimate relationship with another human being as long as you live. And if you decide suicide is a better option, well we always told you you were better off that way, and either way you are no longer a problem for us."
(I repeat: They still wholeheartedly embrace those mind-fuck Pray the Gay Away programs, too. Did I mention shunning? Sorry! And shunning. Because they really do still believe that whatever you have is catching and you might just infect, er, recruit, er..."well, THE CHILDREN ARE IN DANGER!")

THEY USED TO SAY:
"You disgusting loathesome homosexual creatures are so disgusting and loathesome that you are not worthy to be treated the same as NORMAL American citizens, with all attendant rights."
(Mormon-run Utah was not in the forefront of states enacting civil-rights legislation to protect their Black citizens, and they are staging a repeat performance in recognizing and protecting their LGBT citizens. Hell, they are still well below the 50th percentile when it comes to protections regarding: employment discrimination, housing discrimination, designated partners discrimination, hate crimes, repeal of sodomy laws, adoption, domestic partnership, or marriage equality. And it may still turn out that they Come to Jesus in dead last place, or maybe only a couple steps ahead of Alabama and Mississippi. So...)
THEY NOW SAY:
"You disgusting loathesome homosexual creatures are so disgusting and loathesome that you are not worthy to be treated the same as NORMAL American citizens. And even though you know this, you caused us, The Great and Powerful LDS Church, so much PR damage after we won Proposition H8 fair and square that now we are going to have to be magnanimous in our victory and 'allow' Salt Lake City to enact some token, meaningless, local legislation 'protecting' you disgusting loathesome homosexual creatures from rental and employment discrimination. Please read the fine print."
THE FINE PRINT: "This offer is of course void if the landlord or employer happens to be The Great and Powerful LDS Church, or one of our affiliates, or one of our family of corporations, or if one of our loyal membership happens to object on grounds of conscience."
(...and this makes what they now say and do different from what they used to say and do ...how...??? It is not as if all LGBTs in Utah lived in SLC proper. It is not as if the entire state made some kind of momentous shift toward humanitarianism. They might as well have supported the same ordinance in Blanding, or Hinckley, or Goshen...)

THEY USED TO SAY:
"We, the leaders of The Great and Powerful LDS Church, are united in agreement that you disgusting loathesome homosexual creatures are not worthy to be treated the same as NORMAL American citizens, with all attendant rights."
(What can I say? Is it possible to freeze time and keep everything in Utah stuck in the Early Dark Ages while the rest of America zooms into a new millennium? Or at some point will a few people actually begin to use their noodle for something other than skull-stuffing? So...)
THEY NOW SAY:
"We recognize that once in a while, one of our number will still go rogue for a variety of reasons unbeknownst to us - like that Mr. Paul H. Dunn and that Mr. George P. Lee. But if our now-retired Presiding Bishop decides to say something outside the Party Line, it is because he was off his meds, speaking as a man, senile, or fatigued. It does not mean that we, The Great and Powerful LDS Church, feel any compulsion to compromise or alter our position and drag ourselves kicking and screaming into the 21st century. You should be grateful that we don't excommunicate you disgusting loathesome homosexual creatures anymore, but frankly, your presence makes us statistically more important and we still want your financial 10%. So in light of that we say we welcome you into our midst. We might even say, in light of that, that 'we love you' just not in THAT way, hahaha! Please read the fine print."
THE FINE PRINT: "That'll be 10% of gross, please, for us to continue being nice to you. And please do not bring your 'S.S.A. Friend' to church with you any more: this is a FAMILY church, you know."
(Again, "after" is different than "before" ... how?)

Truthfully, I'm not seeing anything but hair-splitting going on. What it mostly looks like to me is a classic shell game, because shifting politically neutral words around into a different order every time in order to make it look like something is happening is actually NOT the same as changing policy and, well, CHANGING. Someone once mentioned the term "baby steps," which I might be able to acknowledge if that were actually the case. A swift review of the above comparisons puts the lie to baby steps.

Sure, people everywhere are trying to pin them down, but bowing and scraping and saying "Thank you" and "Amen" every time The Great and Powerful LDS Church farts in your general direction is not quite the same as holding their feet to the fire and making it so painful for them to keep playing their current semantic games that they will, ...well, change! Our choosing to ignore the negative and only acknowledge the positive is an essay in self-mind-fucking that totally lets them off the hook because in that case they have simply convinced you or I to do their work for them. To quote Dr. Phil: "How's that werkin' fer ya?" And, like Dr. Phil, I'm not buying it either.