One of Australia's highest-profile gay couples described John Howard as a dinosaur and likened his vision of Australia to apartheid-era South Africa or Adolf Hitler's Germany.
Former Australian Medical Association (AMA) president Kerryn Phelps also accused the prime minister of playing "wedge politics" by legislating to stop gays from marrying or adopting children from overseas.
And she predicted a "massive" voter backlash at this year's federal election.
Her partner Jackie Stricker said: "It makes me feel as if I'm living either in South Africa or Hitler's Germany, to be honest with you.
"If you keep trying to marginalise and discriminate against one group, it's a real worry living in a country that does that."
Dr Phelps and Ms Stricker, whose 1998 Jewish wedding ceremony in New York has no legal foundation in Australia, said they felt insulted and outraged by the Howard government's move.
"For God's sake, what is the matter with this man?" asked Ms Stricker.
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"The longer he stays in power, the more I fear whether there's some sort of 1950s prejudice - the wife in apron and patting all the children on the head and keeping all the pretence going.
"It's a joke because gay women are going out there and having their own babies anyway.
"So he's antediluvian, quite frankly. He doesn't make himself look like anything other than a dinosaur."
Ms Stricker said gay women were the largest growing group of foster parents in NSW.
"They're allowed to take other people's mistakes but he's trying to stop them from being able to adopt," she said.
She said all Australians were supposed to be equal under the law - "except if you're gay".
Dr Phelps, an Australia Day ambassador, said the idea that every citizen had the same rights and responsibilities was "a complete bald-faced lie".
She said there was "absolutely no evidence whatsoever" to support the argument that it was best for children to have a mother and a father, rather than same-sex parents.
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