Portly Citizenry Enjoys Equal Rights By Statute
In Michigan, California, District of Columbia
I have been a REALTOR® in Bethlehem, PA for some 21 years. I have worked on local and state committees dealing with Fair Housing and I have been an outspoken advocate of fair housing and civil rights for many years. Do you know that Weight is a "protected class" in certain areas of the country? The following are Discrimination Factoids:
- Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 declares that all persons within the United States have a right to employment free from discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It has been used in weight discrimination cases where weight standards are applied differently to different protected classes (e.g. women and men), and where weight standards have an adverse impact on a protected class.
- The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibits discrimination against an otherwise qualified individual with handicaps, solely on the basis of that handicap, in any program which receives federal assistance.
- The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) extends the protection against discrimination on the basis of disability to the private sector.
- State of Michigan: Elliot Larsen Civil Rights Act, Act 453 of 1976, Sec. 209, bans discrimination in employment based on race, color, religion, national origin, age sex, height, weight, or marital status. (Mich. Comp. Laws Ann. § 37.2102 (1985 & Supp. 1993).
- Santa Cruz, CA (July 1992), defines unlawful discrimination as "differential treatment as a result of that person's race, color, creed, religion, national origin, ancestry, disability, marital status, sex gender, sexual orientation, height, weight, or physical characteristic".
- District of Columbia, Human Rights Law Subchapter II, Sec. 1-2512, outlaws discrimination in employment based upon "race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, marital status, personal appearance, sexual orientation, family responsibilities, physical handicap, matriculation, or political affiliation". (D.C. Code Ann. § 1-2501 (1987 & Supp. 1993).
- San Francisco, CA (June, 2000) passed a law specifically outlawing discrimination against people based on their weight.
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