NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams signed legislation Friday that will ban discrimination based on body size by adding weight and height to the list of protected categories such as race, sex and religion.
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“We all deserve the same access to employment, housing and public accommodation, regardless of our appearance, and it shouldn’t matter how tall you are or how much you weigh,” said the mayor, who joined other elected officials as well as fat-acceptance advocates at a City Hall bill-signing ceremony.
Adams, a Democrat who published a book about reversing his diabetes through a plant-based diet, said the ordinance “will help level the playing field for all New Yorkers, create more inclusive workplaces and living environments, and protect against discrimination.”
Exemptions under the ordinance, which the city council passed this month, include cases in which an individual’s height or weight could prevent them from performing essential functions of a job.
Some business leaders expressed opposition to the legislation when it was before the council, arguing that compliance could become an onerous burden.
“The extent of the impact and cost of this legislation has not been fully considered,” Kathy Wylde, president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City, said in a statement.
Several other U.S. cities have banned discrimination based on weight and physical appearance, including San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Madison, Wisconsin. And legislation to ban weight and height discrimination has been introduced in states including New Jersey and Massachusetts.
Tigress Osborn, the chair of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, said New York City’s weight discrimination ban should serve as a model for the nation and the world.
Osborn said the city’s adoption of the new ordinance “will ripple across the globe” and show that “discrimination against people based on their body size is wrong and is something that we can change.”
The ordinance will take effect in 180 days, on Nov. 22.
More of this woke-ism. Medical Insurance Companies can’t base their rates on risk (patient’s health). Airlines can’t charge based on cost (the largest expense for carriers is fuel; more weight costs then more money). Fat employees work slower and are more often out sick, than normal size employees (in addition to skinnier people interacting with the public are easier on the eyes!). Pity the poor equestrian ranch who doesn’t have a large horse that’s used to schlep 400 lbs. And don’t get me started on the “all you can eat buffet” restaurants literally being eaten out of existence. Enough already!
You cannot inject common sense into an object that resists common sense.
I thought this idea was moot. I was on the subway last year and saw a policewoman that was 5 feet X 5 feet. This was supposed to make me feel safe?
yeah and hurray for all the fat unemployed yaffed trolls1