Talk about a concept rendered quaint by the passage of time, the New Jersey Supreme Court issued a ruling yesterday that instructs the state legislature to create marriage-like legal arrangement for same sex couples. The ruling sounds suspiciously like an order to create a “separate but equal” class for gay Americans:

[The] court gives New Jersey lawmakers six months to create the necessary statutes for same-sex partnerships that are legally equivalent to marriage. Legislators may choose whether the partnerships are called “marriage” — or “civil unions,” as in Vermont.

“The Legislature has played a major role, along with the courts, in ushering marriage into the modern era,” [Justice Barry T.] Albin wrote. “The great engine for social change in this country has always been the democratic process. Although courts can ensure equal treatment, they cannot guarantee social acceptance, which must come through the evolving ethos of a maturing society.”

In 1896, the Supreme Court legalized racial segregation via Plessy vs. Ferguson, which ruled that states that were predominantly bigoted toward African-Americans could prohibit them from using public facilities but that “equal” facilities had to be provided for them. Over the next five decades, states that had been in, or were sympathetic to, the Confederacy had no problem dealing with the “separate” part of the ruling, but never even came close to mustering “equal” schools and other public facilities to blacks. Plessy was overturned, starting with Brown vs. the Board of Education in the 1950s and was put to rest legally with the Civil Rights Act in the mid-1960s.

Let’s hope it won’t take 50 years for Americans to get past their prejudice and fears on the issue of gay marriage.

In the wake of the Foley scandal, disaffection among members of the GOP’s powerful anti-gay faction has escalated again — this time over the swearing-in ceremony for the new U.S. global AIDS coordinator, Dr. Mark R. Dybul, who is gay.

The ceremony was held at the State Department on Oct 10, 2006. It was conducted by Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, with First Lady Laura Bush standing in for the president. Fundamentalists are angry because Dybul’s partner, Jason Claire, was allowed to hold the Bible during the swearing-in — and because Secretary Rice described Claire’s mother as Dybul’s “mother-in-law.”

No decent person would find these niceties to be controversial in the least, but among the champions of bigotry and intolerance there has been a great gnashing of teeth and rending of garments.

Southern Baptist Convention official Wiley Drake:

“I think it’s a tragedy to have a sodomite living with another man and being the AIDS coordinator …because we all know that if we do away with sodomy we’d almost eradicate AIDS… I certainly … believe most Baptists would be like me; they would be appalled at what Condoleezza Rice has done, and in general [with] what the Republican Party is doing with things like Log Cabin Republicans and other sodomites [in] trying to get their vote.”

Peter Sprigg, a vice president at the Family Research Council:

We have to face the fact that putting a homosexual in charge of AIDS policy is a bit like putting the fox in charge of the henhouse,” says Sprigg. “But even beyond that, the deferential treatment that was given not only to him but his partner and his partner’s family by the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is very distressing.”

Sprigg says in light of the Foley scandal, “it’s inexplicable that a conservative administration would do such things.” He also notes that Rice’s comments defy an existing law on the books protecting traditional marriage. “So, for her to treat his partner like a spouse and treat the partner’s mother as a mother-in-law, which implies a marriage between the two partners, is a violation of the spirit if not the letter of the Defense of Marriage Act,” the FRC spokesman states.

With election day just 20 days off, fundamentalists’ anger over gays in the GOP is becoming a wild card in the midterms. The conventional wisdom is that they might stay home on Nov. 7 in sufficient numbers to cause Republicans to lose the House.

The National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), which is based in the San Fernando’s upscale Encino neighborhood, is a group that purports to help gay people go straight. NARTH is embroiled in controversy over statements made by two of their board members that are so inflammatory that even other ex-gay groups are distancing themselves:

[Two] commentaries posted online in recent months by members of NARTH’s scientific advisory committee have raised concerns among its closest allies as well.

[Canadian psychiatrist Joseph Berger] called for allowing schoolchildren to shame and ridicule classmates who don’t act according to stereotypical gender roles. Another board member, [New York psychotherapist Gerald Schoenewolf], asserted that slaves may have been better off in chains than in “savage” Africa…

Yes, folks, these are the “scientists” who believe that the fundamental fact of a person’s sexual identity can be changed. In reality, most of the people seeking “reparative” therapy are bisexuals who can’t resolve wildly inaccurate interpretations of biblical texts with their inborn attraction to members of their own gender. No serious psychiatric researcher or therapist believes sexual reorientation is either possible or necessary.

NARTH is standing by its board members. But advocating the humiliation of school children and suggesting that American slaves were happy in their chains seems to have gone a step too far for other researchers and groups in the field:

One of NARTH’s scientific advisors has quit in protest, and a prominent therapist has canceled his presentation at the group’s annual conference next month. Alan Chambers, who leads the nation’s largest support group for “ex-gays,” urged NARTH’s members to “think long and hard about the mission of the organization.”

…The two groups that regularly stage conferences on “overcoming homosexuality” — Focus on the Family and Exodus International — have both affirmed their support for [NARTH President Joseph Nicolosi]. But Chambers, the president of Exodus, made clear he disagreed sharply with how NARTH has handled the controversy.

Berger’s advice that children with differences be ridiculed “wouldn’t be something we would tolerate from someone who was part of our board,” said Chambers, who recalls being teased for acting effeminate as a boy. “We have to be very careful about what we say and how we say it. Peoples’ emotions, hearts and even lives are at stake.”

Via Digby: Leaders of the Christian right such as Rev. Lou Sheldon at the Traditional Values Coalition and Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, are demanding a “Come to Jesus Meeting” with the GOP to discuss expelling gays from high positions within the party.

“Has the social agenda of the GOP been stalled by homosexual members and/or staffers?” asks Perkins.

He has a point, the Republicans have controlled the government for six years, and yet abortion is still legal and gays aren’t routinely rounded up and sent to forced reorientation camps.

But if “nuts” like Perkins and Wildmon want to cleanse all but God-fearing breeders from the party’s top ranks, will they stop with the Congress?

Digby mentions Mary Cheney, whom the party faithful embraced during the 2004 campaign. Shouldn’t she go too? After all, she is an out lesbian who often works for the vice president. Maybe she is part of the stealth cabal of liberals posing as gay Republican in order to stall the values agenda.

What about gays who are not out? Ken Mehlman, head of the Republican National Committee, for example, has refused to come out as a heterosexual.

How about top Gops who are middle-aged singles?

White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten is over 50 and single — and has been photographed on the arm of every Republican’s favorite beard, Bo Derek.

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, who apparently thinks of herself as George Bush’s “second wife,” is pushing 52 and very single, as far as we know.

When the Night of Long Knives comes, they’ll all have to prove their heterosexual purity, or they will have to go.

And that’s problem with purges. The purgers rarely know when to stop.