We judge the energetic sequence of spin states in substituted methylenes by ab initio multiconfigurational computations and, where feasible, density functional modeling techniques. The best of these calculations reproduce well-established singlet-triplet gaps in X-C-Y species, in which X can be phenyl and Y can be H, methyl, or chloro. Similar computations on p-phenylene-coupled Y-methylenes and meta-coupled Y-methylenes support the suggestion by Zuev and Sheridan that bis(chloromethylene)-p-phenylene has a singlet diradical ground state. However, despite the density functional computations' support for those authors' suggestion that bis (chloromethylene)-m-phenylene has a singlet ground state, we find that our best MCSCF calculations place the quintet ground state suggested by the simplest theory almost equal in energy to that singlet.