Report on Discrimination Against Singles

Thank you for the timely article on discrimination against single people. I grit my teeth every time I pay my income taxes (standard deduction only) and my car insurance premiums (spotless 28-year driving record), but the story pointed out several forms of anti-single bias that I wasn’t even aware of. Congratulations to organizations such as Wells Fargo Bank and Greater Los Angeles Zoo Assn., who have taken positive steps to end this bias, and to Thomas F. Coleman (chairman of the Consumer Task Force on Marital Status Discrimination) for his succinct summary of the problem. We are indeed fortunate to have such an eloquent advocate.

The statements made by Beverly Sheldon were outrageous and a gratuitous insult to half of this country’s population. Apparently, it wasn’t enough for the Sheldons and their Traditional Values Coalition to declare that gays’ lives have no validity; now all unmarried people are to be shunned for the same reasons: They lack stability, do not reproduce, and “carry more diseases.” Mrs. Sheldon then has the gall to say that she opposes discrimination! Would she have us believe that these assumed characteristics miraculously disappear when single people marry, or that married people are universally virtuous while singles, whether straight or gay, are of no value to society or to themselves? The fundamentalist tenet that a fertile marriage constitutes the only legitimate lifestyle is preposterous and deserves to be rejected out of hand.

There appear to be no limits to the intolerance and insensitivity of the Sheldons and others of their ilk. These people graphically illustrate the depths to which prejudice can reach and how much work remains to be done to eliminate it. Contrary to Mrs. Sheldon’s belief, I do not wish to rescind the benefits that married people enjoy; I simply wish to share inthose benefits and be allowed to live my life as a responsible single person without the social and financial penalties I presently bear. Coleman’s task force has my wholehearted support.

DAVID SEARS

Playa del Rey