Singles Equality | Singles Bill of Rights

Legal/Financial

Introduction

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Single People Have the Right to Equal Protection Under the Law

Single people have the right to equal protection under the law, including the right to protection from discrimination in national, state, and municipal legal codes. They have the rights to: 1) equal opportunities to accrue and invest wealth; 2) equal access to financial stability; and 3) protection from financial discrimination based on their romantic relationship status. Currently, these rights are not consistently reflected in U.S  federal or state laws, nor are they evident in commercial banking enterprises based on those laws. Although U.S. federal nondiscrimination policy does officially prohibit marital status discrimination, that policy is not always recognized and implemented, and it exists to protect the rights of married people, not necessarily the rights of singles. The myriad finance-related laws and policies that consider an individual’s marital status are not only discriminatory, but they also have significant negative effects on the financial health of people who are the targets of said discrimination. 

Especially concerning is the way that systemic singlism (and the sociocultural biases it feeds and feeds on) intersects with other marginalized identities. A predominant example are single parents (especially women-identifying parents) who are also Black. Singles studies scholar and social scientist Dr. Bella DePaulo notes that the deficit narrative of singlehood[i] is unfairly applied to these families, who were characterized as a “tangle of pathology” in the notorious 1965 Moynihan Report, which Dr. DePaulo describes as, “a blueprint for marriage fundamentalists in the projects they pursued.”[ii] 

Marriage Privilege Disenfranchises Half the U.S. Population

As of this writing in 2025, almost half the adult U.S. population is single. Legal doctrine across a variety of fields—including, but not limited to, family law, tax law, civil rights law, immigration law, and property law—needs to reflect this significant demographic shift. This section of the Bill of Rights primarily focuses on people who are legally single. The U.S. legal code tends to view these singles in the context of them being “unmarried.” People who are romantically partnered but not married also face discrimination in the U.S. legal code (although that discrimination may present itself in different ways).

Behavioural Economist Dr. Peter McGraw, host of the popular podcast Solo: The single person’s guide to a remarkable life, covers topics such as creating advance directives, aging while solo, being single with illness, and supporting non-nuclear families. These topics are necessary because the prevalence of laws and policies centering the spousal unit makes it harder for single people to manage the logistics of these life planning activities.[iii]

Sociologist Elyakim Kislev, a senior lecturer in the School of Public Policy and Governance at the Hebrew University and author of Happy Singlehood: The Rising Acceptance and Celebration of Solo Living (University of California Press, 2019) notes that “researchers and policy makers [. . .] are not used to thinking of singles as a disadvantaged minority” despite systemic discrimination happening against single people globally. The single people themselves, however, are beginning to rise up. According to Kislev, 

Public demonstrations about rising rents for singles’ housing, cohabitators’ unclear legal status, impoverishment of single parents, and tax rights of divorced people have already taken place in several metropolitan centers around the world.[iv] 


Broad Legislative Change Is Needed

Singledom, singlehood, or simply “single” should be a protected legal category(s). Dr. Naomi Cahn notes that a related effort would be to eliminate the single/married dyad; essentially “the individual becomes the standard. . . result[ing] in legal singlehood for all.”[v] All laws that reference marital status need to be rewritten, with the marital status factor removed or changed to include all relationship statuses, including the status of “single.” These changes will cause a ripple effect into the larger financial and legal industrial complexes, influencing or forcing government and financial institutions to adjust their singlist policies, such as Social Security, tax law, and retirement financing that favor spouses and couples. In order to speed the process, patients, legislators, and advocates must also pressure these organizations to change.  Belgium, Australia, Canada, and the U.S. state of Colorado have begun to implement municipal laws that address some of these inequities in the areas of estate planning and family law. Civil friendship alliances could allow singles to access benefits heretofore limited to married people.[vi]

Decades ago, giving married people extra benefits used to make a certain amount of sense. Journalist Vicki Larson, co-author of The New I Do: Reshaping Marriage for Skeptics, Realists and Rebels (2014), interviewed marriage historian Stephanie Coontz, author of Marriage, a History (2005), for an article in Aeon. Larson explains, “To entice someone to give up earnings to take care of the home and children, she – and it has overwhelmingly been women – would need to be protected. There were incentives to get married as well as obligations.”[vii] This approach no longer works, however, given that far more women participate in the workforce, and men are no longer inherently the breadwinners in the spousal/nuclear rubric. The time has therefore come to uncouple government benefits from marriage. 

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[i] DePaulo, Bella. “Single and flourishing: Transcending the deficit narratives of single life.” Journal of Family Life, Vol. 15, Issue 3, Wiley Online Library, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1111/jftr.12525 

[ii] DePaulo, Bella. “Marriage Fundamentalism Is a Threat to the Dignity and Well-Being of Single People and Their Families.” BellaDePaulo.com, blog post, 2019, belladepaulo.com/2019/05/marriage-fundamentalism-is-a-threat-to-the-dignity-and-well-being-of-single-people-and-their-families/ (Accessed: 20250307)

[iii] McGraw, Peter. Solo, petermcgraw.org/a-podcast-for-happy-single-people/solo/ (Accessed: 20250307)

[iv] Kislev, Elyakim. Happy Singlehood: The Rising Acceptance and Celebration of Solo Living, University of California Press, 2019,  Location 125, www.happysinglehood.com/the-book (Accessed: 20250307)

[v] Cahn, Naomi. “Reflections on Singlehood.” Washington University Journal of Law and Policy, Vol. 72, Issue 1, 202, journals.library.wustl.edu/lawpolicy/article/id/8796/ (Accessed: 20250307)

[vi] 

[vii] 

NEXT: Legal & Financial Rights ››

About us

Singles Equality seeks to: 1) educate the general public on how U.S. law and culture discriminate against singles; and 2) advocate for the equitable treatment of this fast-growing population.

Visit our sister site Unmarried.org to learn more about issues for unmarried couples.

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