This article is from the WebMD News Archive
Fed Up Fat People Get San Francisco To Ban Bulky Bias
May 12, 2000 - Randy Newman sang in one song that short people "got no reason to live" and, in a different song, that he loved L.A. But short and fat people may find reason to live and love San Francisco a little better now that the city has passed a law banning discrimination against those who are short of stature or wide in load.
"What we're saying as fat people: 'OK, we're fat. Some of us have a genetic basis for that, some of us don't. Still, we deserve equal opportunity for employment, equal access to medical care,'" Frances White tells WebMD.
In San Francisco, at least, White, and people similar to her, will get that equal opportunity, or else. The city's board of supervisors unanimously approved a law last Monday banning discrimination based on weight or height. The law bans bias in housing, employment, and accommodations, including hotels, bars, restaurants, and movie theaters.
The same antidiscrimination codes that provide protections based on race, religion, color, ancestry, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, and place of birth now will protect people according to their height and weight. The city's human rights commission can investigate complaints, and make findings that can be used in a lawsuit.
The mayor still has to sign the law, but it's all but a done deal, says White, who is the treasurer and spokeswoman for the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA). White is also a San Francisco resident who was "intimately involved" in getting the law passed. At 5' 7", 350 pounds, White is what she herself would call "fat."
"We would like to use the word more freely and take the sting out of it. It should just be a descriptive adjective like tall or short or dark-haired, blue-eyed whatever," White tells WebMD.
Similar protections already exist in Santa Cruz, Calif., Washington, D.C., and Michigan. The idea began to gather steam in San Francisco last year after a fitness company put up a billboard with space aliens on it and the phrase: "When they come, they'll eat the fat ones first."
"So many people were galvanized at the idea, you know," White says. "Jokes about wiping one segment of people off the face of the earth are not funny. They lead to hate crimes, and it would be totally intolerable if it was any other group that was targeted."
"Please understand; it's not just about weight. It's size and height, so we had people testifying from the Little People of America. ... There was a fellow who, as a very slim man, when he goes for a job interview is turned down because it's assumed he's HIV-positive. So it isn't just about fat people ... we're [just] the last safe prejudice in this country," White says.
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