It’s not often that you see the ardent conservative groups extending an olive branch to the ardent gay groups, so when it happens, it’s worth noting.

Last week, Concerned Women for America issued an alarmist press release that lambasted gay men for the spread of MRSA, a really ugly staph infection that, unfortunately, is spreading like wildfire through many uban gay communities.

“…Now the dangerous and possibly deadly consequence of what occurs in those bedrooms is spilling over into the general population. It’s not only frightening, it’s infuriating,” screamed Matt Barber, the CWA’s cultural policy director. “Because the infection is spread via skin-to-skin contact, homosexual men may soon spread it to the general population.”

It’s the type of grab-the-pitchforks-and-light-the-torches rhetoric that makes one wonder if groups like CWA really just want to round-up all the gays and ship them back to 1978, when they were more useful as interior decorators and florists, but not neighbors, parents and community leaders. It’s particularly unhelpful-not to mention juvenile-when groups like CWA trot out phrases like this one: “those who call themselves ‘gay.'”

So, today, when CWA put out a new statement that asked gay groups (the Human Rights Campaign and others) to help fight the disease, its tone was a noticeably different:

“We now have a wonderful opportunity for ideological opponents to come together for the common good. Steps must be taken to keep this MRSA outbreak, which is occurring within certain segments of the homosexual community, from becoming a more widespread epidemic.

“HRC and other homosexual groups have a profound leadership role in their communities and a responsibility to protect their members from behaviorally related threats to their health and well-being. Therefore, these groups should publicly condemn those specific ‘high-risk behaviors’ which this study has concluded are responsible for spreading MRSA among homosexuals.

“We’re asking HRC and other groups to denounce, through word and deed, ‘sex with multiple partners,’ ‘group sex [parties]’ and to actively promote the notion that it is never okay to ‘use methamphetamine and other illicit drugs.'”

“In light of this behaviorally related MRSA outbreak,” said Barber, “we additionally ask HRC and other groups to call on local health agencies to shut down the many bathhouses and sex clubs around the country where men meet for anonymous sex with other men, often multiple partners, on a daily basis. These places create the ‘perfect storm’ for infectious disease, including MRSA.

“Now’s the time for us all to come together,” concluded Barber. “Let’s do what needs to be done to help curtail this regrettable MRSA outbreak.”

I’ll admit-I don’t often agree with CWA, or at least the tone of CWA, because they so often reflect a seige mentality that portrays opponents as godless enemies and sexual perverts. It often seems they are less concerned for America and more concerned about raising money to keep themselves in business.

But I agree with CWA on this one-the permissive anything-goes sexual liberationism that still overshadows much of the gay community is unhelpful, and yes, unhealthy. Barber’s right-if HRC and other groups want to change hearts and minds, they do need to say that there are boundaries, that some things aren’t acceptable, that certain boundaries should be respected.

If HRC is truly focused on gaining marriage rights for gay couples, then maybe they should do a little soul-searching and see whether bath houses and sex clubs still have a place in 21st century gay America. If HRC wants straight America to treat gay America with the same rights and priveleges of all America, then it’s long past time that gay America stop claiming that a different set of rules apply.

I never thought I’d say it … but good for them.