PHILADELPHIA - U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett, New Jersey's leading anti-gay crusader, took another well-deserved punch in the gut Wednesday when PSEG agreed to cut off the money spigot for his tough re-election campaign this year.

This is getting interesting. Garrett, a conservative even by Alabama standards, believes gays have no place in Congress. Because, well, they're gay.

That kind of bigotry is now a potent enough toxin to force the hand of even a hyper-cautious company like PSEG.

The state's energy behemoth now becomes the 12th major company to divorce Garrett. The list includes several firms that are risking their necks because they have business before the Financial Services Committee, where Garrett is a senior member.

So, three cheers not just for PSEG but for Goldman Sachs, Allstate, Barclays, Chubb, State Farm, and so on.

It was a precious moment Wednesday at the Democratic breakfast here, when Assemblyman Tim Eustace (D-Bergen), announced the PSEG decision. His partner in this is Sen. Loretta Weinberg, also a Democrat from Bergen.

Eustace is one of the heroes of this movement. He stepped out of the closet in the dark ages on gay rights three decades ago, when he and his partner adopted two boys infected with the AIDS virus.

He recalled Wednesday that he had to fight off an attempt to block gay adoption by a state assemblyman named Scott Garrett, who must have thought these infants would somehow be better off in a hospital or foster home. Eustace's partner, Kevin Williams, passed away last year but not until they were finally able to marry. Times change.

"This is important to me, to our sons, and to many LGBT people around the country," Eustace told Democrats Wednesday. "Scott Garrett is my Congressman and he believes I should not serve in office."

Garrett is denying that now, so a bit of history is useful. Last summer Politico reported that in a closed-door meeting Garrett told fellow Republicans that no gays belong in Congress, and that he would refuse to give money to a party committee that had contributed to gay candidates.

He didn't deny it at the time, and the story was based on several anonymous sources. After it broke, Bob Yudin, the former GOP chairman in Bergen County, confirmed it to me after speaking with Garrett.

But in April of this year, with the political heat growing, Garrett denied it for the first time. To believe him, you have to believe that Yudin was lying, that all the sources who talked to Politico were lying, and that it didn't occur to Garrett to deny the story until nine months after it was published.

Or you can come to a more plausible conclusion: Garrett is not just a bigot; he's a liar.

All this put PSEG in a tough spot. The company paid half the bill for Wednesday's breakfast. But it normally donates to candidates based solely on business interests.

Full disclosure: I worked at PSEG in 2008 and 2009 after the Star-Ledger's publisher scared me to death by threatening to close the paper. I know Ralph Izzo and Ralph LaRossa, the two senior executives, and I like and respect them both. Rick Thigpen, their man in Trenton, is a friend who is liked by everyone in Trenton.

But come on. I get that they don't want to play partisan politics. But would they hesitate if Garrett's bigotry were based on race or religion.

"All you have to do is substitute the word 'black' or 'Jew' or 'woman' every time Garrett mentions gays," Weinberg says. "See how that feels."

PSEG did back flips to avoid a public showdown with Garrett. Eustace and Weinberg said the company promised only to hold back for this campaign; so PSEG could resume donations to Garrett next year if he beats Josh Gottheimer, the centrist Democrat who is giving him the run of his life.

And PSEG would not confirm or deny their promise on Wednesday, a silly dodge at this point, especially from a company that is progressive on gay rights in every other way.

Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester) was supposed to speak at Wednesday's breakfast, but he boycotted it, arriving near the end to say he was glad to learn the company flipped.

"They finally got the message," he said.

Indeed. The question is whether people like Garrett ever will.

Tom Moran may be reached at tmoran@starledger.com or call (973) 836-4909. Follow him on Twitter @tomamoran. Find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.