What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat

by Aubrey Gordon

END THE LEGAL, WIDESPREAD PRACTICE OF WEIGHT DISCRIMINATION In forty-eight of the fifty US states, it is perfectly legal to deny someone housing, employment, a table at a restaurant, or a room in a hotel just because they’re fat.1 State and federal judges have repeatedly upheld the right of employers to discriminate on the basis of size. At the most basic level, banning anti-fat discrimination and ensuring equal pay will be essential to helping fat people survive and thrive. We’ll need to ban workplace weigh-ins for cocktail waitresses and flight attendants, to end pay bonuses for weight loss, and to stop workplace weight-loss competitions. We can work to establish meaningful laws and impact litigation to end weight-based discrimination.