Bigotry’s final legal frontier

Obesity just might be the last unregulated frontier of discrimination. Laws fighting bias on the basis of religion, race, age, gender and sexual orientation have become commonplace in the U.S., but only Michigan and San Francisco, Washington D.C., Madison, Wis., and Santa Cruz, Calif. have passed laws outlawing bias against height and weight, according to a Chicago Tribune article published today. Massachusetts' legislature is currently mulling over a similar law. Weirdly, the two people who weigh in against these laws (sorry, couldn't resist the pun) in the article are overweight or obese, which gives the odd impression of people wanting to be discriminated against: But not everyone, including the corpulent, considers anti-weight-bias legislation a good idea. "Legislation happens when people are too childish to police themselves," said Sue Ann Jaffarian, author of the Odelia Grey mystery series starring a 220-pound heroine who is a reflection of her creator. "But, as a fat woman, I don't want a green light," said Jaffarian, 55, who worries that such a law would validate what some consider unhealthy weight. "The downside of legislation is that the prejudice would go more underground." This sort of discrimination is more complex than that against, say, race, gender or sexual orientation, because weight can be changed. The question is: By how much? Where you stand on this issue, it seems to me, depends to a large extent on how much you believe genes influence weight. But whether you're for or against the laws , the sheer scale of the problem - two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese - is astonishing: With health costs rising, employee weight, like smoking, is on many employers' minds. According to a report this month by The Conference Board, obese employees cost U.S. private businesses about $45 billion annually in medical expenses and absenteeism. The report also said obesity accounts for a greater increase in health-care costs than smoking or problem drinking… For more on what the Trib terms the "fat acceptance movement," check out the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance.