Half of Americans Support Laws Against Weight-Based Discrimination
Are there laws that would protect obese people from being denied housing or jobs because of their weight? According to a study, whether you answer yes or no to this question could be affected by your gender, your race, and your weight. This study examined how these factors influence perceptions of obesity, weight bias and weight-based discrimination laws.
According to the survey, about half of Americans support legislation against weight-based discrimination. People who have experienced weight bias are approximately twice as likely to support the policy than those who haven’t. findings, which were presented June 7 at the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Annual Meeting (ASMBS) in Dallas.
Can a person be denied employment or fired for their weight?
According to Wikipedia, weight bias can be defined as negative attitudes and beliefs, judgments or stereotypes about people, and discriminatory acts directed at them simply because they are overweight. Obesity Action Coalition (OAC). This can be obvious or subtle, and can happen in any setting — work, healthcare, school, and even personal relationships.
What does weight bias look like in reality? Consider the case of Taylor v. Burlington Northern Railroad Holdings, Inc.Casey Taylor was an ex Marine who sued after the railway offered him a conditional job. However, a medical exam revealed that he was severely obese and he had to be rescinded the offer. Taylor was 5′ 6″ tall and weighed 256 lbs, which translated to a 41.3 BMI.
A person with a body mass index (BMI) of 25-29.9 is considered overweight. A person with a higher BMI than 30 is considered obese. According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute BMI is calculated on the basis of a person’s weight and height, and the same formula is used for both men and women.
The railway company informed Taylor it was their policy not to hire anyone with a BMI above 35. To be able to work for the railroad, he would have several tests that he would have had to pay out of his own pockets. He could also lose 10 percent of his body weight and maintain it for six months.
Taylor claimed that Taylor was violating Washington state’s Law Against Discrimination. The case reached the Washington Supreme Court where Taylor won. The court ruled that obesity is an impairment and therefore protected disability.
The senior author of the research says that statutes such as the one in Washington are rare and far between. Fatima Cody Stanford, MD, MPH, an associate professor and obesity medicine physician scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston. “There are no universal laws in the U.S. for weight discrimination. With the exception of Washington and Michigan and a few cities, it is legal to discriminate on the basis of weight,” she says.
People are more likely to support laws that prohibit weight discrimination if they have been on the receiving end of it.
To find out more about people’s perceptions about obesity bias, researchers had a diverse group of 1,888 adults complete a 26-item online questionnaire; the participant makeup was as follows: 328 Asian or Pacific Islander, 404 Hispanic or Latinx, 395 Black, and 761 white. Questions included questions about whether obesity is a disease, how Americans view obesity, awareness of obesity advocacy groups, and whether participants supported laws against weight discrimination.
About half of Americans overall would back such legislation, and the researchers found there were several major predictors of support — or lack thereof. “Controlling for other variables, if you personally experienced weight bias, you were twice as likely to support this policy. If you considered obesity to be a disease, you were 1.8 times as likely,” says Matt Townsend, MDLeah, who is the author and a Duke Health resident intern medicine doctor in Durham, North Carolina, is the author.
“Interestingly, Black race and female gender were each associated with being 1.4 times as likely to support antidiscrimination laws. We can only conjecture that lived experience of stigma is a powerful motivator to make things more equitable,” he says.
Dr. Stanford believes it is natural that people who have had the experience of navigating race and gender bias are more likely support laws relating to weight bias. “These individuals probably face more weight-based discrimination just because of their intersectional identities of being part of a racial/ethnic group, being female, and then having the disease of obesity compounding that,” she says.
Nearly a decade ago, Obesity was first recognized as an incurable disease
The American Medical Association (AMA). designated obesity a disease2013 Experts now recognize that although it is affected by behavioral factors, genetics, environment and social determinants of the health play a significant role.
An increased risk of developing heart disease, high blood sugar, type 2 diabetes, and other cancers is associated with having a body weight that is too high for your height. It’s estimated that more than two in three U.S. adults have overweight or obesity, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
People often make assumptions about people who have excess weight. Stanford says that people may believe that overweight people are lazy, passive, lack self control, or make poor decisions. “We know these biases are not true, but they are widely held beliefs in our society,” she says.
Multiple ways to combat weight bias
Dr. Townsend believes that a problem as culturally ingrained as weight bias needs to be addressed on multiple fronts — individual, institutional, and through societal or policy means. “At a personal level, it’s more awareness on the issue — how it creates disparities in attainment, socioeconomic status, and psychological harms,” he says.
Townsend says that organizations can take steps at the institutional level to eliminate the most common sources for weight stigma. “Our study found that the media was the most frequent source of weight bias, but high rates were also experienced in the employment and healthcare sectors,” he says. Townsend uses Townsend’s example of how bias can be detected and corrected by avoiding fat-lazy stereotypes in movies.
He also says that policy-level action is needed. Stanford points out that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does NOT identify weight as a protected status. Laws that prevent weight-based discrimination should be considered an exception.
“Legislation has the potential to create more equitable protection for people with obesity, and our study showed about half of Americans were supportive of the idea of laws against weight discrimination,” says Townsend. These findings could be used to build public support in these “natural allies” for antidiscrimination legislation, he adds.
Recognizing and Addressing Weight Bias
Do you have negative weight-related assumptions? Take the quiz to find out. free Harvard implicit association testStanford speaks out about weight bias. “This can help you discern where you are on the spectrum; if you have biases in this area, then you can begin work on improving that.”
She says that education can be a good place to start. The Obesity Action CoalitionOffers information and resources to help people understand this issue, as well ways that people can take steps to promote positive change.
Source: everydayhealth
