Bullying the LDS Church?

SLC made the news this week as the City Council endorsed an act guaranteeing civil rights protections for homosexual and transgender persons. The bigger news was the endorsement of the legislation by the leadership of the LDS Church.

Now, a fax is being distributed in SLC, and perhaps elsewhere, claiming that the LDS Church had no option but to give their support for the act. According to the fax, "The LDS Church had to Stand [sic] as an "Entity" and protect itself. (publically [sic] they cannot come out and say this)". Further, the fax proclaims, "SHAME on UTAH GAYS for persecuting, harassing, using intimidation tactics, and staging scenarios to corner The LDS Church into endorsing their movement and to use the LDS Church as a backbone to sway the LDS voters and legislators to vote for thyeir laws!"

To this, I would make the following points:
-- It is preposterous for anyone to claim that the Utah homosexual community has enough power and numbers to bully the LDS Church into doing anything! That would be like some small group in Rome being charged with bullying the Catholic Church into doing something the church did not approve.
-- At the time the legislation was being considered, the LDS Church issued its statement of support by affirming it always supported equal civil rights for people. The fax is essentially saying that the Church lied about its support as a politically motivated and expedient move.
-- The fax claims that "All anti-discrimination laws containing sexual orientation in them, [sic] are made with the sole intent to promote the acceptance of homosexuality and other sexual behaviors as a lifestyle to the children." It seems that these laws are to protect people from being fired or being thrown out of housing solely because of their sexual orientation. Further, this claim suggests that some child can be forced to become a homosexual.