NEW YORK –
New York Mayor Eric Adams signed legislation on Friday that would criminalize discrimination in body size by adding weight and height to the list of protected categories such as race, sex, and religion.
“We all deserve equal access to jobs, housing and public places, regardless of our appearance, and it doesn’t matter how tall you are or how much you value,” said the mayor, who was joined by other officials and advocates. acceptance of fat in a signing ceremony at City Hall.
Adams, a Democrat who has published a book on diabetes through a plant-based diet, said the regulation “will help level the playing field for all New Yorkers, create more inclusive workplaces and liveable environments, and protect against discrimination.”
Exemptions from the ordinance, which the city council approved this month, include cases in which a person’s height or weight may prevent them from performing essential job functions.
Some leaders have expressed their business against the law, arguing that compliance can become burdensome.
The scope of the impact and cost of this law has not been fully considered, Kathy Wylde, president and CEO of the Society in New York City, said in a statement.
Discrimination based on weight and body type is also prohibited in other cities in the United States, including San Francisco, Washington, DC, and Madison, Wisconsin. Initiatives have also been introduced to ban weight and height discrimination in the states of New Jersey and Massachusetts.
Tigress Osborn, president of the National Association for Increasing Fat Acceptance, said New York’s ban on weight discrimination should serve as an example to the nation and the world.
Osborn said that the city’s adoption of the new regulation “will spread around the world” and show that “we discriminate against people who are wrong on the basis of body size and we can change something.”
The law will take effect in 180 days, on the 22nd of November.
