- The New York Metropolis Council seems ready to move a invoice banning weight and top discrimination.
- The invoice would apply to employment alternatives, housing, and public lodging.
- Massachusetts, Vermont, New Jersey, and New York state may enact related insurance policies, per The Washington Put up.
Lawmakers in New York Metropolis appear poised to move a invoice that may make it unlawful to discriminate primarily based on weight and top, in accordance with stories.
The invoice, launched by Council Member Shaun Abreu final Spring, would amend town’s code to ban “discrimination on the premise of an individual’s top or weight in alternatives of employment, housing, and entry to public lodging.”
The invoice is presently in committee hearings, in accordance with the council’s legislative web site. The invoice has racked up 33 co-sponsors, surpassing the mandatory 26 yes-votes wanted to move, and Mayor Eric Adams has signaled his assist for the laws, the Put up reported.
“This was lengthy overdue as a civil rights concern,” Abreu advised The Washington Put up. “It is tremendous vital that we deal with everybody with the dignity and respect they deserve. On the finish of the day, that is about job safety, that is about housing safety. If somebody seems a sure manner, if somebody is of a unique physique dimension or has greater weight, who cares?”
Final month, Abreu mentioned he was “honored to face with” the Nationwide Affiliation to Advance Fats Acceptance, which has additionally expressed assist for the invoice.
“Collectively, we’ll construct an inclusive world that celebrates our variations,” Abreu mentioned in a tweet.
—Council Member Shaun Abreu (@CMShaunAbreu) February 28, 2023
In line with the invoice’s textual content, it might allow an exception for employers who want to contemplate top or weight as a “bona fide occupational qualification fairly essential to the traditional operation of the enterprise.” It could equally exempt “operators or suppliers of public lodging solely the place top or weight necessities would qualify as bona fide issues of public well being and security.”
Measurement-based protections exist already in Michigan and Washington state. Lawmakers in New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Jersey are additionally contemplating related measures, the Put up reported.
Some 30.7% of US adults are obese, and 42.4% are overweight, in accordance with the 2017-2018 information (the newest out there) from the Nationwide Well being and Vitamin Examination Survey.
