December 20, 2005


Unmarried America

Transcript of taped segment airing on Anderson Cooper 360 tonight.

The silent majority has give way to the single majority. For the first time ever there are now more unmarried households in the United States than married households. It is a seismic shift for the single set, but it comes at a price. Many unattached American say they're becoming the targets of discrimination. CNN's Randy Kaye reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Blythe Collier and Bob Simpson have been together for 18 years. They live together, own a business together and are blissfully in love.

BOB SIMPSON, BLYTHE'S "SWEETIE": I met Collie (ph); she is someone I wanted to spend my life with.

KAYE: But Bob and Blythe aren't married. Nor do they have any plans to ever get married.

BLYTHE COLLIER, BOB'S "SWEETIE": Have you priced wedding dresses lately? Oh my god, it's like, why would you want to spend that kind of money.

KAYE (on camera): Is this at all somewhat of a protest, this not getting married business?

COLLIER: For me, it is a little. I'm nobody's property. I belong to me.

KAYE: Don't you belong, somewhat?

COLLIER: I belong to me.

SIMPSON: There are a lot of people that say they're committed because they're married. And then they're divorced in two years or five years or ten.

KAYE: Bob and Blythe are part of the 86 million single adults beginning to define the new majority in America. Already unmarrieds make up 42 percent of the workforce, 40 percent of homebuyers, 35 percent of voters, and are one of the most potent consumer groups out there. Yet they say they face mass discrimination in almost every one of those areas.

(voice-over): When Bob Simpson lost his job, Blythe Collier lost her health benefits, because they are unmarried, she would no longer be covered under Bob's supplemental insurance.

Dorian Solot and Marshall Miller, founders of the Alternatives to Marriage Project, hear stories like that every day.

DORIAN SOLOT, CO-FOUNDER, ALTERNATIVES TO MARRIAGE PROJECT: People who have lost their jobs or been refused promotions because they're not married.

KAYE: Solot and Miller founded the group after they say they experienced discrimination.

SOLOT: Not being able to get joint health insurance, to having trouble renting an apartment together, to being charged twice as much for tenants insurance.

KAYE: Singles don't just feel discriminated against in the private sector, but at the federal level, too.

MARSHALL MILLER, CO-FOUNDER, ALTERNATIVES TO MARRIAGE PROJECT: I don't think married couples should get tax breaks. I don't think unmarried people should get tax breaks. I think the tax code should have nothing do with marital status.

KAYE: But it does. Marital status can also impact getting a gym membership, renters insurance, even mortgages. Unmarried workers pay the same Social Security as married workers. Yet their partners won't receive survivor benefits. Insurance companies charge higher rates to unmarrieds because most states allow marital status to be used as a rating for setting premiums. And unmarried people are not eligible for family health coverage for their partners or families.

TOM COLEMAN, EXEC. DIRECTOR, UNMARRIED AMERICA: Private sector employers, wake up and smell the roses. Unmarried America is here.

KAYE: Tom Coleman is the executive director of Unmarried America, a lobby group that fights for rights for singles.

COLEMAN: Federal law does not prohibit marital status discrimination in employment or housing. So when we go knocking on the doors of these federal agencies, they can't help us.

DAVID POPENOE, THE NATIONAL MARRIAGE PROJECT: Married couples raise children, and society is very interested in having children raised well, because they're our future.

KAYE: Dr. David Popenoe of the National Marriage Institute promotes marriage, and studies how its perceived imbalance is affecting society. Popenoe argues that married people are in effect being discriminated against.

POPENOE: The single people are getting away scot free. They're going to, when they're 70, benefit from somebody else's kids paying their Social Security benefits. And probably they ought to have to pay, you know, double.

KAYE: But Tom Coleman disagrees.

COLEMAN: A single person who dies a month before they retire, everything that they have paid into Social Security evaporates. They cannot leave anything to a survivor or beneficiary.

KAYE: Social discrimination also exists, even among family members. Blythe and Bob, after nearly two decades together, are still treated like teenagers.

COLLIER: There were a couple of visits where I think my father made sure that we slept in different rooms. But he got over it after a while, and a couple of years later when we came back for another visit, we were in the same room with twin beds. And we looked at it and looked at each other and said, Shut the door, and we just pushed the beds together.

SIMPSON: Pushed the beds together.

KAYE: Some things, you find a way to change. Some things, you find a way around. Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.