Seldom has the line between right and wrong been so clear, as when my fellow legislators and I unanimously voted earlier this month to extend the protections against discrimination proscribed under the county's current human rights legislation.

The county has always guaranteed the rights of each of its residents, protecting them against discrimination based on race, creed, color and national origin, but the society in which we live has become greatly diversified and our laws should be representative of that fact. That is why we included into the existing legislation protections against discrimination based on gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, source of income, religion, and ethnicity.

These protections will guard against the evils of discrimination, prejudice, and ignorance, and ensure that each Nassau County resident will be guaranteed an equal opportunity to succeed and to enjoy a full and productive life. Ultimately, it is our hope that this historic moment will make our county stronger and bring all of us closer together.

The additional protections provided in this legislation will be applied to the selling, buying, financing, listing and leasing of housing, to the prohibitions against discrimination in the workplace, and to the prohibitions against the denial of access to public accommodations.

It is important to understand that this legislation does not mean that you have to give an unqualified person a job or rent an apartment to a person who cannot pass a credit-check. It doesn't say that you have to provide home financing to a person with no job, no financial history and no references, however it does say that you can't refuse that job, apartment, or financing to a person just because they are Catholic, Jewish, female, gay, or because they walk with a cane or need a leg brace, or because that person is Pakistani, French, Russian, Italian or Irish.

It is clear that no one should ever be denied an equal opportunity to live their life the way that they want to. It is clear that we can no longer look the other way in the face of discrimination. And it is clear that this is the right thing to do for our neighbors, our families, our county, and ourselves.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a joyous holiday season and Happy New Year.