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Your Nov. 4 editorial, "Equal rights bill needs work," questions the fiscal wisdom of County Council member [Nancy] Navarro's bill that would require county contractors to offer their gay employees with domestic partners whatever benefits they offer their straight employees with spouses. Since only a small percentage of people in our community are gay, the fiscal impact on a given contractor would be negligible; and in this competitive environment, contractors' bids are not going to be higher because a small percentage of their workforce would be able to avail themselves of benefits already offered to their colleagues.

More to the point, however, is that if a particular religious or ethnic group was discriminated against regarding work benefits, I doubt that The Gazette would argue that the council should refrain from making non-discrimination a prerequisite to holding a county contract because of the supposed potential cost or, as your editorial put it, the danger of "government interference in the private sector." And that is really the crux of the matter: The county would not contract with a company that engaged in religious or racial discrimination; nor should use the public's tax money to contract with a company that discriminates based on sexual orientation.

David S. Fishback, Olney

The writer is advocacy chairman of the Metro D.C. chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.