A committee of the Doylestown Borough Council in Bucks County this week unanimously approved a measure that seeks to offer enhanced protections to the LGBT community.
The three-member government committee approved the bill Tuesday night, and the measure could come before the full nine-member council as early as July 19.
The bill would institute a life-partner registry for same-sex couples and would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the borough’s nondiscrimination ordinance.
Additionally, the measure would create a human-relations commission to investigate cases of discrimination.
At least 30 people attended the committee meeting this week, during which the committee members made minor changes to the legislation, such as increasing the number of members who would sit on the human-relations commission.
Steve Glassman, chair of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, who was present for the meeting, said there was also a discussion about creating a budget for the commission, but the committee is holding off on that component for now.
“The model being used is the one created for Lansdowne and subsequently used in places like West Chester and Easton, in which it’s built into the legislation that there’s a future possibility — without having to amend the ordinance — that council members can allocate a budget and hire staff to support the work of the commission,” Glassman explained. “That way, the borough can feel its way through in the first year and see how many cases they get and then make a determination about staff later, and I think that’s perfectly reasonable.”
Glassman said the support the measure has seen is unprecedented.
“There was a very positive, upbeat environment I experienced in both the meetings I’ve attended there. There were no protesters, no negative comments,” he said. “The first full council meeting had over 200 people there, and this was just a work session of a committee and there were still more than 30 people who showed up to actively participate in the conversation. Even the council members commented that they’ve never seen anything like this on any other piece of legislation, that these are the largest groups they’ve ever had show up.”
Four additional council members who are not on the committee attended Tuesday’s meeting and voiced their support for the bill, which Glassman noted puts seven out of the nine committee members on record in favor of the measure.
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].