Having passed it's new anti-discrimination ordinance last night, Haverford Township is now pregnant with it's own Human Relations Commission. It will give birth shortly. It will be fun to watch the HHRC grow into a quiet and useless creature with little or nothing to do. Or evolve into a hectoring, busy little beaver. You never know with these things.

In any case, the proud parents, were congratulating each other Monday night on their baby's conception. Commissioner Larry Holmes, who endured months of fertility treatments...

thanked the gay and lesbian couples, all the people “who stood up and exposed their lives to us, and told us about things they’ve suffered, and asked us to make this a better township for them. ... I appreciate my colleagues’ courage on this vote, but it is the people who spoke tonight who I honor.”

“I’m so happy,” said Lou Devecchis, the resident who initially requested legislation to protect members of the LGBT community.

I tried to talk these two out of this. But when people are in love with an idea, it's hard for them to see any downside to it.

The ordinance, though proposed specifically to protect needful gays, will cover the whole panoply of protected classes including "Race, Color, Religious Creed, Ancestry, Age, Sex, National Origin, Handicap Or Disability, Use Of Guide Or Support
Animals Because Of The Blindness, Deafness Or Physical Handicap Of The User Or Because The User Is A Handler Or Trainer Of Support Or Guide Animals, Or Because Of An Identity Or Gender Expression."

No wonder the head of state HRC, Stephen Glassman, recommended the hiring of a full-time staff person at $60,000 a year, when Doylestown considered its own anti-discrimination ordinance (It failed). Protecting people from perceived discrimination can be a time-consuming and expensive business. (Glassman claims the PHRC is sadly underfunded.) Of course, if the law is being passed as a symbolic gesture with no intent of real enforcement, well then that's a different story.

One group it will not cover is people who suffer from pedophilia (or pediophilia, for that matter). Doing so would be vile, bizarre, warped and ignorant. The commissioners have made that very clear.

No doubt Larry and Lou and the rest will be proud no matter how their spawn turns out. Whether it is a fat, lazy do-nothing or an aggressive little cuss who drives the neighborhood crazy, it will be theirs to feed and care for.