The Rapid City School District, in South Dakota, revised its anti-discrimination policy in September to add “pregnancy” and “marital status” to its list of protected classes. Not yet on the list: sexual orientation or gender identity. But to keep its state accreditation, the district is considering doing just that. Until the school board held a meeting to debate adding four new words, and everyone jumped in to say they also wanted fatness and hair color added to the list.
Because heavy people, and those who put a pink streak in their hair, also face harassment, bullying, and discrimination. The Rapid City Journal notes:
A majority of the community speakers Thursday night asked board members to strike the words “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” and replace them with “other human differences.”
“Our current policy must protect the rights of all students, not just special interest groups,” said local pastor Dale Bartscher, who is affiliated with the South Dakota Family Policy Council. “That includes fat, thin, short, if they have blue hair, whatever.”
A line of almost a dozen community members and legislators echoed the sentiment with personal stories of being bullied or bullying students for things that were not on the list – for having red hair, for being the new kid, for coming to school as a cowboy – smelling like the farm and the morning chores you just came from – as was Charles Kruse’s experience.
“Are you going to add cowboys?” he asked.
Well, gay cowboys, maybe.
Jon B
Call me crazy, but that doesn’t seem so unreasonable. Although I don’t see the problem mentioning sexual orientation (or, percieved sexual orientation which is more important in a school situation) specifically and including “and other human differences” as well.
Josh NYC
FAT kids need to be educated more than protected. In today’s world it’s just not very smart to be Fat. Fat is a choice.
terrwill
Can’t we pleeeaaasssee fast forward to the boy or girl diddling inevitable sex scandal which is sure to break regarding
Dale Bartscher?
Mike L.
Why dont they just sum up fatness skinnyness hair color difference and all the other stuff into (BODY IMAGE there are countries which include this in their hate crimes legislation [4got which tho]) and include sexual orientation and gender identity separately, they’re just idiots trying to stop the last two from being included.
Josh NYC
Because we make want to make ourselves a “protected class,” (and some of you want to add fat kids, too) we can’t just have a law that says “don’t bully anyone for anything. Period.
Republican
“Our current policy must protect the rights of all students, not just special interest groups,”
OK, for starters, I’m really getting tired of the claim that this is all about protecting special interest groups. (Just another twist on the ‘special rights’ charge.) Yes, if the rule specifically said ‘homosexuals’, then you could say that it isn’t protecting all students, but in reality it says sexual orientation. Under such a rule, an upset gay student can no more harass his classmates for being straight than they can harass him for being gay.
stitch
@ Josh NYC
I hope you’re being sarcastic, in which case ignore the rest of what I have to say.
If you’re not being sarcastic, you’re being ignorant. Being fat is as much of a choice for some people as being gay is for the rest of us. It’s all in the (size 44) genes.
Jon B
@Josh NYC: In order to be a protected class, one of two things must happen. 1) Congress creates legislation protecting a specific class of people (See Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX, Matthew Shephard Act, etc.). 2) A decision by SCOTUS that a particular group is a protected class, and thereby afforded heightened scrutiny in equal protection and substantive due process cases. School bullying guidelines don’t make anyone a protected class, save within the walls of that school or district.
Chance
Stitch – for some, SOME people, it may be in the genes.
For MOST, it’s in the ice cream, the doritos, the hot dogs, the cheese whiz, the cool whip, and on the couch.
It is never in the produce aisle or on the treadmill.
TK
Those people that do this, do it out of spite toward Gay people.
The difference is that Gay people are specifically targeted because they are Gay, and go through life living with threats because they are Gay, and many commit suicide as a result.
Fatness, and hair color are just fads, that kids go through, Gayness is not a fad. It’s like kids getting teased because they might wear glasses or something superficial, and being Gay is not a fad nor is it a superficial character, it’s innate to whole person Their just trying to ridicule Gay People for being Gay in another way.
If they want to add things they should do it at another time, but for right now the issue at hand is sexual orientation, and they need to add that to the list, then bring up those other issues at another time, not during a time when they are going to debate adding sexual orientation.
If they have a problem with Fatness and Hair color, then they have some serious problems with in their community, and yes they to should be protected, but doing it in a way to lessen the need or ridicule Gay people in another way is a shame.
It’s like a person coming to blog post about Horses, but they make their comments all about Cats. Focus on the issues, and stop trying to water down or ridicule the facts.
Josh NYC
@ Stich:
I was being accurate, not sarcastic.
Obesity is a medical condition for less than 1% of the population. For 99% it is simply laziness. Obesity is now the number one contributor to our healthcare costs – recently eclipsing cigarette smoking. For all but a few people – obesity is as preventable as smoking. It takes a commitment to health. Fit people also look a lot better than fat people. (Feel free to conduct your own research).
Some choose to be fit, some – by default – choose to be fat.
It is a healthcare crisis that “fat” is now the new “average.”
Suggesting that people can’t “help themselves,” or that they actually choose to look and feel terrible, is not helpful.
Josh NYC
Yes, Jon B. But, WE don’t want to be a “protected class.” We want to be equal. Protected is NOT equal. In fact, it only makes equality much more difficult.
Josh NYC
Sorry TK, but “Fatness” is not a fad – it is a bad behavior (unhealthy). They seek to equate being gay with that bad behavior. They are suggesting both are preventable.
FAT is a choice. Being gay is not.
Republican
Josh,
That may be their motivation, but do you think that students should be free to harass the fatties?
Josh NYC
@ Republican:
Nobody should be allowed to bully anyone. That’s much simpler and it doesn’t add to our “victim” status. We can’t be equal as long as we’re victims.
terrwill
What happens if a fat kid is Gay??? : P
Josh NYC
They should get un-fat.
Mr. Enemabag Jones
Chance
For MOST, it’s in the ice cream, the doritos, the hot dogs, the cheese whiz, the cool whip, and on the couch.
Chance, I appreciate the points you’re trying to make, but please don’t use these steretypes. I was very overweight until my early twenties. I did not eat junk food–I’ve never had cheeze whiz. I ate very healty food, just too much of it. And I did exercise, just not the right way.
Don’t assume that all fat people are sitting on the couch eating Big Macs and guzzling soda. Some of us eat the proper foods, but we don’t stop at seconds; we go to thirds and fourths.
BTW–care to guess why I was fat as a teen and young adult? There’s a reason it’s called “emotional eating”
Josh NYC
@ Mr. Jones:
It’s a problem. Hopefully people can be honest about it being unhealthy. Clearly it’s more difficult for some, but it’s not less important. It’s not possible to be FAT and HEALTHY.
Good luck with your efforts. It IS worth the effort.
TommyOC
I agree with No.1. What these people are asking for is perfectly reasonable to add into the non-discrimination policy. “Other human difference” is a good catch-all, so long as the phrase is clearly defined to include differences of choice and non-choice.
This will protect people from discrimination, regardless of their personality or body traits, whether one sees those traits as a choice or not.
And I’m down with that. And all of you should be too.
Josh NYC
@ Tommy OC:
Why do find the need to identify any characteristics – chosen or not. Bullying is bullying – no matter what the reason. It’s just easier (and clearer) to say “no bullying.”
Every time we seek to define ourselves as “needing protections” we defer our equality.
Josh NYC
Oh, and FAT is NOT a “body trait.” It is a RESULT.
oic
I see nothing wrong with that. No discrimination against anyone imo.
We need to pass an anti-fat discrimination law in this place jfc. Fat discrimination is the only discrimination where the person on the receiving end is made to feel as if they deserve it.
I’m overweight. Yet, I eat healthy, own a gym membership and walk/run frequently with regular trips to the doctor. I just have trouble losing weight (not that I even care to because I’m actually happy with myself) so fuck off. Don’t run your mouth about other people’s bodies when you have no idea what kind of situation they’re in. The idea that fat people all get that way by eating badly, or they choose to because they want to be part of some fad (what the fuck?) is ludicrous and harmful.
Also, one of the commenters mentioned hair color being a fad. Lol, what? AFAIK Ginger hate is pretty common in the UK. They don’t choose to be born with red hair.
Josh NYC
98% of fat people made themselves fat. The reasons may vary, but THEY did it.
harvp
If they want to be fat, fine, and about the health care costs rising as a result, so what really? I’m sure it would have been something else. Humans have kinda fucked it all up at this point.
Cam
Wow, the wingers are so desperate to not have the word “Gay” on ANYTHING official.
Sam
@Josh NYC; “It’s not possible to be FAT and HEALTHY.”
Whoa! I was right there with you Josh, until you said this, which is completely untrue. Health outcomes correlate more closely with activity level than weight, which is why the chubby chick you always see at the gym will be healthier and live longer than the naturally skinny folks who never exercise. Recent studies even suggest that the slightly overweight outlive their “correct weight” counterparts.
So yes, while being overweight tends to correlate with a lack of activity and poor health, it’s not an absolute. There are PLENTY of healthy, active fat people out there.
Josh NYC
@ Sam:
From the Surgeon General:
PREMATURE DEATH
An estimated 300,000 deaths per year may be attributable to obesity.
The risk of death rises with increasing weight.
Even moderate weight excess (10 to 20 pounds for a person of average height) increases the risk of death, particularly among adults aged 30 to 64 years.
Individuals who are obese (BMI > 30)* have a 50 to 100% increased risk of premature death from all causes, compared to individuals with a healthy weight.
HEART DISEASE
The incidence of heart disease (heart attack, congestive heart failure, sudden cardiac death, angina or chest pain, and abnormal heart rhythm) is increased in persons who are overweight or obese (BMI > 25).*
High blood pressure is twice as common in adults who are obese than in those who are at a healthy weight.
Obesity is associated with elevated triglycerides (blood fat) and decreased HDL cholesterol (“good cholesterol”).
DIABETES
A weight gain of 11 to 18 pounds increases a person’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes to twice that of individuals who have not gained weight.
Over 80% of people with diabetes are overweight or obese.
CANCER
Overweight and obesity are associated with an increased risk for some types of cancer including endometrial (cancer of the lining of the uterus), colon, gall bladder, prostate, kidney, and postmenopausal breast cancer.
Women gaining more than 20 pounds from age 18 to midlife double their risk of postmenopausal breast cancer, compared to women whose weight remains stable.
BREATHING PROBLEMS
Sleep apnea (interrupted breathing while sleeping) is more common in obese persons.
Obesity is associated with a higher prevalence of asthma.
ARTHRITIS
For every 2-pound increase in weight, the risk of developing arthritis is increased by 9 to 13%.
Symptoms of arthritis can improve with weight loss.
REPRODUCTIVE COMPLICATIONS
Complications of pregnancy
Obesity during pregnancy is associated with increased risk of death in both the baby and the mother and increases the risk of maternal high blood pressure by 10 times.
In addition to many other complications, women who are obese during pregnancy are more likely to have gestational diabetes and problems with labor and delivery.
Infants born to women who are obese during pregnancy are more likely to be high birthweight and, therefore, may face a higher rate of Cesarean section delivery and low blood sugar (which can be associated with brain damage and seizures).
Obesity during pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of birth defects, particularly neural tube defects, such as spina bifida.
Obesity in premenopausal women is associated with irregular menstrual cycles and infertility.
ADDITIONAL HEALTH CONSEQUENCES
Overweight and obesity are associated with increased risks of gall bladder disease, incontinence, increased surgical risk, and depression.
Obesity can affect the quality of life through limited mobility and decreased physical endurance as well as through social, academic, and job discrimination.
personal and/or family history of heart disease
Josh NYC
@ Sam:
It is about FIT or FAT – not “skinny people.”
Someone can be a little overweight, but work hard and be mostly FIT. But, “obesity” or FAT is UNHEALTHY.
Sam
@Josh NYC: Hmmmm. I guess if you’re defining “FAT” as clinical obesity, then I agree with you. I thought you were using it in gay lingo, which basically equates to “anyone who doesn’t have a visible six pack.” 😉 I’m 5’9″ and for me to qualify as “obese,” I’d have to weigh 210. Most queers – especially the ones on this board – would call me “FAT” long before that point.
Hell, some of ’em would now, and I’m in the “normal” zone of the BMI chart. At the top, but still in it.
Also, your surgeon general paragraphs follow the old school paradigm of lumping the overweight and the obese together, which newer studies are finding is not helpful. As I mentioned above, two recent studies (one from the CDC) found that “people who were overweight, but not obese, actually lived longer than people whose weight was considered normal, based on body mass index (BMI).”
Sam
@Josh NYC: Also, I’m not sure I agree with “”Fatness” is not a fad – it is a bad behavior (unhealthy)” when it comes to kids. I got pretty chunky around the fifth or sixth grade, but then hit a growth spurt and got back to a normal weight as my height caught up. My parents were consistently strict about making sure my brother and I didn’t eat junk, so it wasn’t bad diet. I think it was just my body getting ready to grow.
Again, there’s a difference between “chunky” and true obesity, but I think the point I’m trying to make is that you can’t just say anyone overweight is unhealthy. You have to look at the sum of their health choices. There are an awful lot of hard drinking, drug-using gym queens out there, and I’d bet the farm on a moderately overweight but active sober person to outlive those girls any day.
Josh NYC
National Institutes of Health:
“A person 5 feet 5 inches tall becomes overweight at 150 pounds (68 kg) and obese at 180 pounds (82 kg). The U.S. National Institutes of Health has an online BMI calculator at http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/ .”
Obesity: Not Admitted by Most
NCL’s new survey found a startling disconnect between the way people perceive their weight, and their actual weight category based on the body mass index (BMI), the most common measurement for obesity. U.S. adults were much more likely to refer to themselves as “overweight” rather than “obese”, and consistently identified themselves as being in less severely overweight groups. In fact, 52 percent of respondents referred to themselves as overweight, and only 12 percent as obese, severely obese, or morbidly obese. But, based on actual BMI calculations using self-reported height and weight information, among the 96 percent of respondents who reported height and weight, 35 percent are actually “overweight,” whereas 34 percent are actually obese, severely obese, or morbidly obese. Among respondents who are obese according to BMI, 82 percent consider themselves to be simply “overweight.” Alarmingly, only a minority of all respondents (20 percent) claimed to know their BMI number.
Josh NYC
@ Sam:
FIT or FAT is a good way to look at it. It is impossible to be both. Sure, there are some exceptions and some aren’t fat, but simply overweight – but, FIT is the goal. FIT = Healthy.
Sam
@Josh NYC: We seem to have a difference of opinion. I think “FIT or FAT” is a horribly simplistic way of looking at it, and one that justifies making snap judgments on people’s health and dedication to health based on their appearance. I think that a rule like “FIT = Healthy” is so flawed that it can never possibly be useful. By that rule, Heath Ledger and Brittney Murphy were terribly healthy, right up until the day they each died young.
Obviously, you are free to believe whatever you want to believe. I’ll leave you to that now.
B Damion
Hey…Hey..Hey..F-ing..Heeeeeyyyy..Fat people like me need love too. This is why gay men will always be unhappy. Give the chubby’s a chance at love..god.
TheOtherGuy
*sigh* I always rant too long on this subject:
I actually kind of agree with the legislation, but then in the back of my mind I know that they are only doing it in an effort to block specific gay protections rather than look out for red-headed or overweight kids.
As for everyone tossing shit about fatness: I have a university education in health and wellness and have worked specifically in health promotion and combatting sky-high obesity rates in the workplace.
While thyroid disorders and other problems exist, the fact is that they are rare and do not jive with the fact that obesity rates have sky-rocketed in the past few decades. Just because you have a greater disposition to gaining fat than others does not mean that you have to be fat.
Based upon my experience with literally hundreds of employees, most people who are overweight or obese who feel they exercise and eat right in reality really don`t eat that great (or they overeat) and/or don`t exercise that much when you compare them to healthy-body fat individuals. The fact is that if you are packing extra pounds, you take in more calories than you burn.
You can still be fit to an extent, but don`t go on about how healthy you eat or how much you exercise if you are obese. A gym membership does not prove anything. Perhaps you think you`re doing well compared to in the past, but in reality, it doesn`t compare to what those who are in a healthy body fat range do. People often have a very warped sense of how well they eat or how much they exercise.
That being said, calling people who are overweight disgusting, lazy, or spewing other vitriol at them doesn`t help the situation, which the said legislation might help. Fat kids shouldn`t be teased. Neither should adults for that matter. It creates body image problems and worsens their situation. In the case of adults, if it doesn`t come down to a lack of proper education on the subject or breaking long-standing habits, being fat is often due to underlying emotional issues and has to be treated delicately.
Still, I disagree with `fat-acceptance` or `fat pride` because obesity is a ridiculous and unnecessary burden on our health care system and is detrimental to society in general. Being proud of one`s obesity *IS* a sign of poor character, laziness, and is socially irresponsible. There is no such thing as a good excuse for not being able to exercise more or eat right. If there is an emotional issue, work through it.
Sorry for going on for so long! I`m just talking body fat here. Being thin and healthy (let`s first define what we mean by healthy) is a whole different discussion.
hyhybt
Why do find the need to identify any characteristics – chosen or not. Bullying is bullying – no matter what the reason. It’s just easier (and clearer) to say “no bullying.”
It’s also consistently less effective. Anti-bullying laws, programs, etc that list examples of categories of bullying are better implemented than those which easily, clearly, just say “no bullying, period.” Not because teachers, administrators, counselors, etc don’t try but because for any bureaucratic system the rules have to be concrete.
Josh NYC
#37 HYHYBT:
That’s the dumbest thing I have read in a long time.
No bullying. It’s very simple.
Josh NYC
Thanks “OtherGuy.”
We don’t need to pick on Fat people, I agree. But, let’s tax them for the additional healthcare costs. I’m thinking our income tax rate should be the same as our body-fat percentage.
That would make people think about the consequences of their behavior. While we’re at it, let’s have a $10-per-pack-cigarette tax.
Mark_Your_Words
I think being fat and smoking should be thought of as the “same.” Both are preventable AND stupid.
Being fat and smoking cigarettes are the two major healthcare problems – estimated to be contribute to nearly half of all costs. The people who eat too much or smoke should be paying for their own bad behavior.
TheOtherGuy
I hope the idea of taxing people on their fatness is a joke. Thats a ridiculous notion and there is no point to even go into all the bigger issues that would cause.
I think to really combat increased healthcare costs for those who are obese, sales taxes should be increased on junk foods, unhealthy fast foods, and tax breaks be given on things that lead to exercise and active living such as gym memberships, registration fees with sports teams or exercise groups, etc.
This would cover the extra healthcare, reduce unhealthy eating, and promote active living. Its unfortunate that too often legislators have BigMacs in their own hands.
Bonita Bizarre
@Josh NYC:
Did a fat person frighten you as a small child or something? Why the obsessive focus on such an irrelevant tangent. Sheesh.
DR
@Josh NYC: It may very well be a disingenuous move, but that doesn’t mean it’s not appropriate. Fat kids, kids with glasses, kids who don’t express themselves in the “normal” way take a great deal of abuse. These are the kids who end up with anorexia, bulemia, low self-esteem, self-injurious behavior, etc.
Kids can be mean about a lot of things, but the fat kids and kids with glasses who get tormented regularly need protection too. If we insist that the school environment *must* protect all children from teasing, then be prepared to deal with issues and concerns like this.
@TK: BMI is notoriously inaccurate as a measure of whether one is overweight or not. It doesn’t take into account anything other than height and weight, and to suggest that a solid athlete and a chubby non-athlete who are the same height and weight ought to be measured by the same standard is ludicrous.