Discrimination Protection Due to Weight?

Anyone who has ever tried to lose weight knows that it is not easy. Heck, if it was, we would all be walking around in the bodies we want, and there would likely be no such thing as 'plus size.' Unfortunately for those of us above our ideal weight, there is no magic pill to make all those extra pounds melt away, and anyone wanting to lose weight has to work very hard for months or years to make it happen.

With this being the case, and with popular media proclaiming that up to two-thirds of US citizens being overweight, it is no surprise that there is a buzz to pass laws banning discrimination because of weight. I strongly feel, however, that this would be a mistake.

Most discrimination laws are based on facts about ourselves that we can not change. People are protected from discrimination due to specifics like gender, age, race, disability, and national origin. barring rare exceptions due to sexual reassignment surgery, these are things about ourselves that we cannot change. They do not reflect on us well or poorly, and it makes perfect sense that we should not be discriminated against based on them. Keep in mind that this discrimination mostly protects against people in the workplace, and for service-related reasons. People cannot be refused employment based on one of those factors, nor can they be refused service in many places because of them. This is, in my opinion, a good thing.

However, I don't think that a person's weight is in the same category as one's race or gender. I am no waif, and am very well-acquainted with the difficulties involved in losing weight. I also know what it feels like to be singled out or ridiculed because of my weight. It is demeaning, painful, and will linger with a person. But, despite the difficulties involved, I know that my weight is, for the most part, my own choice. Except for relatively rare metabolic disorders, most people are capable of shedding extra pounds. Even with the so-called fat gene, doctors have estimated that a difference of only a few hundred calories a day is what makes the difference between a slender person and a heavier person. Research is constantly being done to help make weight loss easier, and there are prescription medications that can help people to succeed at weight loss, even though it still takes time and hard work. This makes weight a far more changeable condition than the other factors that are protected against discrimination. I feel that even religion, the one protected attribute which is changeable, is more difficult to shed than excess pounds.

It is not just the changeability of weight that makes me feel that it should not be protected. Another factor is the seriousness of what would be required if a law was passed protecting it. What would the repercussions be of such a move? Unlike race, there are some serious changes that might need to be made to accommodate people with overweight, including some major safety issues. Would skydiving companies be required to hire obese people as skydiving instructors, despite critical safety concerns? Would airlines no longer be allowed to charge two tickets for people whose size does cause them to take up more than one space on a plane? The repercussions of such a law change would we widespread and likely very expensive.

With so many of us in this country falling into the category of overweight, this issue isn't going to go away. And even though people with significant amounts of excess weight undoubtedly do go through inconvenience and some daily embarrassment, I do not think they should be protected from these. They should be treated with dignity, courtesy, and respect, as should every other human being, but the bottom line is that their weight does create safety concerns and other issues, and that for most of us, excess weight is something we can change, no matter how hard it may be. As long as this is the case, I will continue to feel that we should not be given special protections that will cause great inconvenience and expense to everyone.