If you are one of the 15 million Mormon Church members and you still wish to call homosexuality a sin or an aberrant behavior, that has not changed. The big announcement is that Church of Latter Day Saints will protect LGBT people from discrimination in the workplace or in housing. Salt Lake City Mayor, Ralph Becker, stated:

“As the first city in Utah to successfully pass an ordinance guaranteeing protections for our LGBT residents in the areas of employment and housing, I laud the decision of LDS Church leaders to publicly re-visit today the support they showed for our local effort in 2009... I urge our state lawmakers to follow the lead of church officials and work to get this legislation passed in the current session. It’s just the right thing to do.”

But this is essentially a publicity stunt that shows that the Mormons do not favor violence or discrimination based on sexuality or gender identity, but still deny the same civil rights to LGBT citizens as they always have. In fact, they are going out of their way to make sure the old "deeply held religious beliefs" mantra is revered and treasured as much as the Prophet Himself, Joseph S'myth. This is, after all, the same church that engaged in electric shock therapy at BYU to try to cure "the gay."

Here's how Elder Dallin Oaks, one of the members of the LDS Church's governing board known as the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, is careful not to afford any new actual rights to LGBT citizens.

"The leadership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is on record of favoring such measures (against discrimination). At the same time, we URGENTLY need laws that protect faith communities and individuals against discrimination and retaliation for claiming the core rights of free expression and religious practice that are at the heart of our identity as a nation and our legacy as citizens."

This announcement is more like, hey, we don't condone violence or prejudice against LGBT Americans in the pursuit of employment or housing, but do NOT take away our right to deny gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people the right to marry who they love or engage in any "behavior" the church finds icky. They are all for the pursuit of existence and subsistence, but certainly not the pursuit of happiness. Let's be clear here.

Since Utah's LDS Church is more powerful than the secular government, this will change laws up in Salt Lake City. Government leaders will be modifying how they deal with discrimination, as prior to this noble announcement, they were free to treat people as second class citizens or chattel. But seriously, folks, nothing has changed. They just can't say I'm not hiring you because you're gay or you can't live in this development because you are a lesbian couple, they'll find some other random reason to perpetuate their religion/cult's sanctioned discrimination. But they'll do it politely because they're Mormons, not dicks.

If you recall the big revelation that the Apostles "received" in 1978 that they can now accept people of "color" into the priesthood, provided they were, of course, male. The real reason this change was announced: President Carter caused a ripple throughout the religious community in America when he threatened their tax exempt statuses if they engaged in discrimination against blacks and other minorities.

Prior to this date, the viewpoint of the Mormons on people of color was known as the Curse of Cain Doctrine. It essentially meant this: All black Mormons, and everyone with “one drop of Negro blood” were banned from the Mormon Temple and the Mormon priesthood. Isn’t it ironic this threat to their real estate and other business holdings coincided with a revelation from the prophet du jour? Spencer W. Kimball (the prophet at the time) knew this was a threat to what the church values most, not the prophet, but the PROFIT.

The LDS Church still reserves the rights to excommunicate members if they choose to "gay marry," or even support the idea. But the LDS Church is a Fortune 500 corporation, which operates with a robust balance sheet. The more members paying their tithes, the better. They realize this is just better for their bottom line.

After coming under intense criticism for leading the fight for California's Proposition 8, church leaders have been trying to heal tensions by telling Latter-day Saints to be more loving and respectful toward gays and lesbians, while appealing to gay and lesbian Mormons to stay in the church.

This is a more tolerant LDS Church, not in matters of love and marriage, but in ways that enable a person to support and house themselves, so they don't become a burden on society. We'll leave the burdening up to the polygamous communities who are saddled with so many kids, public assistance is a must.