Report on Discrimination Against Singles

So you report “Widespread Bias Against Unmarrieds.” A better headline would have been “Remnants of Support for the Institution of Marriage Not Yet Totally Stamped Out.” So 55% of Angelenos are unmarried. This fact bespeaks some benign trends, but mostly some very tragic ones--like a nasty divorce rate, casual unions, with widespread illegitimacy--most often on the part of irresponsible teen-agers--resulting in unsupervised young males running rampant in death-dealing gangs.

The stable heterosexual union (preferably legally sanctioned in humans) was not thought up yesterday. It is the center piece of much mammalian, and certainly most human biology and culture--praised in romance, song and story and solemnized by religion. With all its faults, it is still the most salutary unit in society’s mosaic, the best milieu in which to raise children, and for most adults to grow old in. I, and I am sure the vast majority of Americans, are not prepared to see it disappear, to be replaced by who knows what.

In our time marriage has had many, often unrealistic, demands placed upon it. Now it must accomplish the self-fulfillment of both partners. It needs all the support it can get. It can do without the trivialization by gays who equate it with their affairs, or demographers who predict its total demise. Even though threatened at present, it will be here long after its detractors have gone. Although I’m a single--recently widowed--I’m all for any preferential treatment that can be provided to married couples and families. Let’s not kick the institution when it’s down. Let’s give it all the help we can.

JESSE H. HARVEY

Whittier