New York City mayor Eric Adams (D.) is set to sign a law that will protect overweight people from discrimination.
The law, passed by the city council on Thursday, will prevent anyone's "height or weight" from playing a role in "employment, housing and public accommodation." Democratic councilman Shaun Abreu said weight discrimination is "a silent burden people have had to carry."
"They're being discriminated against with no recourse and society saying that's perfectly fine," Abreu said, adding he feels he was treated differently after gaining 40 pounds.
"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.’ And 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," Abreu said.
Republicans are concerned the law will throw open the door to frivolous lawsuits. Republican council minority leader Joseph Borelli said it will allow residents to "sue anyone and everything."
Fat activists spoke to the council over the past few months to support the law, the New York Post reported:
One of the New Yorkers who shared their story was self-proclaimed "Fat Fab Feminist" Victoria Abraham, a recent NYU graduate who educates her 120,000 social media followers about weight stigma.
"In most places in the United States, you can get fired for being fat and have no protection at all, which is crazy because this is a very fat country," she told ABC7 this week.
"Are there gaps in this bill? For sure. But I think it’s the perfect first step," she said of the city’s new legislation.
Abraham and other activists — including the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA), which was a partner on the bill — are backed by troubling statistics.
Studies show that at least 42 percent of US adults say they have faced some kind of sizism, or discrimination based on their size. Weight bias has been linked to lower wages and employment struggles, as well as negative experiences in education starting as early as preschool.
While the city's leadership focuses on fat protections, New York City is set to receive busloads of illegal migrants from the southern border. Adams has said the city has "no room" and announced a plan to ship hundreds of migrants to the suburbs, but Democrats in El Paso, Texas, are already planning to load more buses bound for the city.