Burchett / 5 Senator Watson

S. B._____

A BILL
To include protection against discrimination in the work place for people with larger body masses.
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in
2 Congress assembled,
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4 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE
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This act may be cited as the Obesity Discrimination Act of 2016.
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7 SECTION 2. FINDINGS
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Congress hereby finds and declares that,
9 1) People of sizes larger than the average are discriminated against because of a bias set by our
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society.
11 2) Obese people are not well protected under law against discrimination in previous rulings by
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congress.
13 3) There is a bias in our society that disfavors overweight people in workplaces, the media, and on a
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daily basis.
15 4) Overweightness is usually attributed to traits that are unfavorable to working conditions.
16 5) All cases of obesity are not the victims fault because there are diseases that can cause obesity and
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other outside stimuli that affect weight.
18 6) The majority of overweight people are treated unequally in work conditions considering pay and
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treatment.
20 7) People of larger size are more susceptible to teasing/bullying from all ages which can impact them
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in unhealthy and negative ways.
22 8) The current protections for overweight people in the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans
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with Disabilities Act are too limited and must be rectified to insure their security from
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discrimination.
25 9) Current laws against obesity are at times hidden and is not efficiently brought to the attention of
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the people.
27 10) Past court cases have only addressed cases that have individuals that express the trait severe
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obesity which does not efficiently encompass the widest spectrum of people that are affected by
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obesity or are overweight
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31 SECTION 3. STATUTORY LANGUAGE
32 1) The Obesity Discrimination Act of 2016 will amend sections 202 and 301 of the Civil Rights Act
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of 1964 to place size on the list that comes as follows: race color, religion or national origin to
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insure that people who are overweight or underweight shall not be discriminated against. It will
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also amend Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 by creating a section specifically targeting
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overweight people in work place situations. Any cases of a dispute between a manager and an
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overweight employee in the workplace shall be first perceived by the manager as a case of
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disability until proven by substantial evidence otherwise. Since obesity is not always the victims
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fault, this section should protect the innocent overweight people from being quickly profiled with
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stereotypical traits that are associated with fat people including but not limited to: bad eating
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habits, and laziness.
42 2) The Department of Justice will be responsible for directly advertising obesity discrimination. They
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are to insure that obesity discrimination is against the law and the general populace are aware of
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this fact. The advertising can be funded by $342,000, allocated from the federal budget because it
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is a relatively small amount.
46 3) This Bill will be enacted on the second of February 2016, Groundhogs Day. There is no expiration
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date for this bill.

Since prejudice exists and is condoned, a bill ensuring the protection from discrimination for people of
different sizes will better protect them in working environments, show that obesity is not completely the victims
fault and bring attention to the struggles of the overweight person to attempt to bring them to an equality standard
that our country seems to effuse.
Work is a very important matter in our lives because it sustains us, but obese people are treated unfairly
in the workplace by managers and other coworkers. A person that is overweight is commonly considered less
bearable for a job than a person of average weight because managers harbor a bias favoring people who are
skinnier. This creates inequality between people of greater size and others through pay and treatment. Women of
smaller weight have a greater income rate than larger women, including average weight women. Currently, our
country is fighting for wage equality for women with men, but wage equality also exists due to weight. If it is
unbearable to treat women unequaly in comparison to men, then it should be just as ignominious between
different weight categories. There are some cases that have defended obesity on a very limited scale through the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Court cases involving overweight
issues in the rare cases that it occurs have only helped those cases that the individual is affected by severe
obesity. Even though it is cited quite often that fat people are mistreated in work environments, not much is
being done to address this issue unless they have severe obesity.
Even though some clauses protect those with disabilities, they only seem to affect those with severe obesity.
Although the court addresses obesity, its only in the terms of severe obesity and does not also protect overweight
to obese people from unfair treatment at work. There is still a lot of discrimination against obese people in work
places that can be solved by establishing obesity as a disease.
People do not consider obesity as a disease because it is primarily conceived as a controllable effect
through temperance and self-control, which is generally not true. Obesity can be caused by other diseases and or
genes that can affect a persons fat. Even though behavior does affect weight such as: food intake, exercise and
other outside sources, there is still a sizable amount of people who cannot control their weight. These people are
most heavily impacted by unfair treatment because they truly do not deserve to be reprimanded for something
that is out of their hands. There is also a case in which a court had concluded that obesity is actually a disease
because it can be caused by so many different alien sources. This truly shows that obesity should be cited as a
disease to help them gain more support in health care and prevent them from being thrown out of their jobs based
on their size. Although diseases are truly bad, labeling obesity as a disease can probably help draw more attention
to their aid which is necessary to prevent obesity from causing more deaths. Since obesity is more likely than not
to not actually be their fault, treating overweight people as almost a second class citizen, a monster, or gross
pathogen is truly a very shameful act because tormenting an innocent for a disease should fall into the protection
of our countrys supposed standard of equality.
People of more than average weight are the butt of our countrys jokes which can be at times truthful,
but should not be a force in which people use to attack and mentally harm citizens. Bullying heavily affects
overweight individuals because they treat them as more different than average sized children. Through this,
overweight people can feel ostracized. This bullying is continued into older ages where overweight people can be
treated as less than people. Even for actors, skills are most wanted in looks considering weight. To be
successful an actor must be skinny instead of an artist who conveys message through acting. Our social bias
creates an atmosphere of immediate hatred for obese people that most occupations escape. Weight holds a much
more important role in the minds of everyone when judging a person which leads to people bullying people who
are overweight because fat is seen as sickness which is not beautiful. They are not even defended by California
Law to be protected against bullying! They arent even specifically protected in equal rights! There is no escape
for Overweight people, even in law; bullying still continues to happen and is seemingly impossible to stop for
overweight people. Passing kids would break the person through teasing which led to increasing self-doubt. Our
society should not have the power to form childrens minds into believing that they are under anyone else
because they are not confident in their own disposition; they should be comfortable in their skin. Therefore,
obesity should be included in anti-bully protection instead of only when they have disabilities.
A bill to protect obese people from discrimination would help to further civil rights by increasing
fairness in the work place, establish that not all cases of obesity are not at the fault of the victim, and attempt to
bring them to an equality standard that most people see today. They are still people, their body masses should not
be the determining factor of their personality. Therefore, we must remove discrimination against overweight
people.