New York City Council members have passed a bill making it illegal to discriminate against people's height and weight when determining employment, housing, and public accommodations.
The city joins just six others and one state with similar protection laws, which have been passed in the state of Michigan and the cities of Binghamton, New York; Madison, Wisconsin; Urbana, Illinois; Washington, D.C.; and San Francisco and Santa Cruz, California, reports CNN.
"It’s not only protecting people in the workplace from this or in getting apartments, but it’s also about changing culture," New York City Councilman Shaun Abreu, the lead sponsor of the bill, commented.
He said another version of the bill existed before he joined the effort, but he took the lead after facing weight discrimination issues of his own.
"Just recently someone who I considered to be a friend came up to me and touched my stomach and said, 'we’re getting bigger there buddy,'" said Abreu. "It just speaks to the toxic culture that exists in the United States when it comes to people that are above their average peers' weight."
According to a Vanderbilt University study, women who are considered obese are especially hit hard with discrimination in the workplace, as they earn an average of $5.25 less an hour than women who are not seen as obese.
The American Journal of Public Health, meanwhile, notes that discrimination based on weight is comparable to levels of racial discrimination nationwide.
However, discrimination is hard to prove in many cases, and as part of New York City's new bill, job descriptions requiring a certain height or weight would be considered in any lawsuits.
"If there’s a job requirement where weight is related to the essential function of the job, then that’s an affirmative defense that an employer will have," said Abreu.
The Partnership of New York City, an organization representing the interests of small businesses, says the bill is too broad and opens businesses up to litigation.
"The extent of the impact and cost of this legislation has not been fully considered," Kathy Wylde, the organization's president and CEO, said in a statement.
Last month, several leaders in the fat activism community spoke at a hearing on the bill, and Wylde said their testimony called for changes that would require businesses to spend high amounts of money while trying to comply with the bill.
"Testimony at the hearing talked about the problems overweight people face sitting in restaurant and theater seats, bikes having a weight limit, taxi cabs requiring seat belt extenders," said Wylde. "All of these things could be considered discrimination under this bill and require costly modifications to avoid fines and lawsuits."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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