Lending heft to an anti-bias campaign

The class that really needs protecting is the class of people of people who believe government should be limited and stay the hell out of people's lifes. But that doesn't play to the victim culture or government's desire to take your money and freedom by telling you that you are inferior and need protection

2/3 of this country is overweight... and now we need a law to protect this majority?!

So when are we going to have laws protecting the unattractive, the stutterer, annoying voice etc. These folks are discriminated against too.

The funny thing is we currently have laws that protect against discrimination for color, religion, race, sex, sexual orientation, age, etc.... Guess what. They don't work.

Unless someone says outright "we didn't hire you because you're too large" there is no way of knowing if the candidates size was the issue.

What's next the government requiring a quota of overweight people being hired?

Life isn't fair. People will always discriminate against something but in this case I don't feel size should be protected.

"Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." 1 Cor. 6:19-20 If we glorified God in our spirit, we would not sit in judgment on people who are fat. And if we glorified God in our bodies, there would be no fat people to judge. Once again we turn to the legal system to try to address issues that stem from problems of the heart/will/spirit. And so once again we are doomed to fail.

I am curious how this would effect airline pricing. Many airlines make large people buy two seats where appropriate.

[While I am sorry when I see an obese person being enabled at the all you can eat buffets around town, I am turned off when I watch them eat two or three pies after consuming six to eight full plates of food. I also find myself getting consternated when they move past me in a narrow aisle and shove me up against the wall or when I'm on an airline and an obese person sits next to me, crowding me up against the bulkhead. Everytime they move, it pushes me all over the place.

Companies proclaim to promote weight management, but that does not include the medical care that usually needs to be included. For most corporate insurance programs, you have to jump through hoops to get certain medications or surgical procedures covered. They might want to think twice about allowing more medical coverage for weigh management that could decline the coverage needed for conditions such as diabetes and heart conditions.

Ridiculous. Pass a law like that and fat people will start suing the owners of sports stadiums for discrimination because the seats aren't wide enough. Refering to some buddy as a fatass will be considered a hate crime. Obesity is a personal health issue like smoking or drinking. 95% of the time fat is a choice that people make. You don't have to eat fast food and choose not to exercise. It is a choice albeit a bad choice but a choice nonetheless.

Jeri DeYoung wrote:

Being overweight or obese, like smoking, should not prevent anyone from getting a job unless their impinged on job performance. However employers, government agencies, and health programs should cease subsidizing this choice. There is not a enough heath care monies to cover this option. So overweight, obesity, smoking, and the refusal to exercise should be a personal choice but one that the paid for by the individual. Automakers could end their lament about high health care by charging employees for their CHOSEN life style.

This is the best comment I've read about this issue yet. JOB PERFORMANCE AND ATTENDANCE should mandate keeping employment and not legislation. I'm very tired of my premiums going up and paying taxes for other people's unwise choices.

This would be the most ridiculous legislation ever contrived. It would eventually, albeit subliminally, send the dangerous message that being obese is acceptable. And would, therefore, encourage overweight Americans to embrace their obesity rather than fight it and take the weight off. I never had a weight problem in my life until I went through the devastating experience of my mother's death. I became depressed, fed that depression voraciously, and hence, packed on the pounds. But I in no way embrace my current state. I am working hard to do something about it. I have changed my diet and I now exercise 6 days a week. While I agree that qualified candidates should not be denied employment because of weight, I abhor this whole fat acceptance movement which not only promotes an unrealistic acceptance of body image, but places overweight people at great health risks.

Are you kidding me? How can it be discriminatory when almost everyone is fat nowadays? There is no minority in being overweight.

Frank wrote:

<quoted text>I take it that you don't want your daughter to loose 15 pounds because you want her FAT like you.FAT is not healthy.

Why is everyone misspelling the word lose? anyway, obviously her daughter is already slim but thinks she needs to be skinnier, thus she shouldn't even be thinking about losing 15 pounds.

First of all I don't think that we should go ahead with this legislation. I m 63, most of my life I was underweight. I am 5 feet. When I was 18 I weighed 88 pounds. I had four children and the most I weighed with any pregnancy was 140 pounds. After my youngest was born I weighed 98 pounds. When that child was a year old I had 2 serious illnesses, an infection that affected all my glands and Histoplasmosis which affects the glands also. I gained 75 pounds during these illnesses. My metabolism was destroyed and my Thyroid was very underactive. I gained continuosly after that. Today I am over 200 pounds, I am diabetic and have high blood pressure. I have tried losing weight but trust me I don't eat all that much junk. As far as exercise is concerned, I don't drive so I walk a lot and I am raising a 4 year old Autistic grandson. I also work full time and until this year I probably took as many sick days as anyone else. This year I caught a very bad virus from my grandson and was off for 2 weeks. I have not been in a hospital since I had gallbladder surgery about 20 years ago. So please don't say that all people are overweight because of their lifestyle.Please don't lump us all into one group. Some people actually have physical problems that cause weight gain and some take medications, like myself, that cause weight gain.

Where is the love?

A love starved outsized person could die of emotional malnourishment on these boards...

Are you serious? If you dont want to be discriminated against then put the fork down and get your fat a-ss to a gym.
This is nothing like religion or race and people that think it is are flat out dumb. Weight is something you can control.
It is not a disease or an addiction.
Next thing you know crack heads will say they have rights and shouldnt be discriminated against. Unreal what this country is becoming......a bunch of cry babies. We used to be a pretty bad ars country until the PC liberals and the lawyers took over. Its a sad day.

Dear lord is anyone actually stupid enough to think that people will take one look at an anti-fat-bias law and think "Oh hey, it's okay to be fat so I think I'll start eating!" People put on weight for a lot of reasons, all personal, not public. The least our public institutions can do is to signal acceptance that some of us will battle with our weight all our lives, and provide an atmosphere where that battle can be fought without having to dodge officially sanctioned bullets on top of the inevitable social ones from idiots who seem to think that weight problems are simply a matter of a poor moral character.

To all those who blame their DNA for being fat:

Go spend some time overseas. In other countries, NOBODY is obese. I mean, NOBODY. I've traveled to many countries throughout the world and have always been struck by how much thinner people are in other countries.(Another thing you can do is watch TV and film footage from twenty/thirty years ago in the US, and see how much thinner people are then). Obesity is a result of our bloated, lazy American lifestyle. It wasn't always this way here, and other countries still know how to stay thin. Why don't we? This is precisely why the US is losing out on the global market---we are a nation of lazy fatties. And now these lazy fatties want legal protection? What a crock.

Steelpedler's response mirrors mine. The availability of tasty and cheap food for the past 60 years or so in the U.S. has been an anomaly in our history. We may be entering a period in which the only cheap food is either extremely unhealthy or tastes lousy. How many fries can you eat before you are unable to look at one without getting nauseous? And oatmeal tastes like a wet mop. This issue may end up taking care of itself.

I do not advocate lumping fat people together as lazy or undisciplined. Many peoples' bodies simply prefer the extra weight. I myself gave up snacking indefinitely 5 months ago when I realized my clothes were a little tight. I have stuck to it and do not plan to go back to my old habits in the foreseeable future. However, although my clothes now fit, I am not and will never be skinny unless I get a wasting disease. No thank you!

One sector that should be worried is the weight-loss industry. If I worked for them I'd be polishing my resume right about now and taking some computer classes.

I can certainly understand that obesity causes medical problems. Does that give society the right to openly abuse, make fun of, alienate, and torture anyone who is overweight so the average looser feels powerful, better that the victim and in control?

When did this become the right of every American Citizen? I was openly abused and tortured thoroughout my young years and I still am very much impacted by experiences from 40 years ago. Everyone one of those loosers will burn through eternity and I will light the first match.

Notice the authors of this bone-headed proposal lump height, a condition definitely not in your control, into the same category as the all-you-can-eat crowd. Stop burning Ethanol, start burning fat.