Last spring, Massachusetts state Rep. Byron Rushing sponsored anti-weight-bias legislation which would outlaw discrimination based on a person’s weight. While he’s proposed similar legislation in the past, this bill received much more attention.

“What was clear from the public hearing we had is there is a growing number of people who think this should happen and an even larger number of people who think we should at least be talking about it,” he said in the article. (You can read the article here.)

The argument against legislation: “Legislation happens when people are too childish to police themselves,” said Sue Ann Jaffarian, author of the Odelia Grey mystery series starring a 220-pound heroine who is a reflection of her creator.

“But, as a fat woman, I don’t want a green light,” said Jaffarian, 55, who worries that such a law would validate what some consider unhealthy weight. She added, “The downside of legislation is that the prejudice would go more underground.”

The argument for legislation: “I think it would help mostly because it would send a message that fat people are equal citizens. It’s not in the litigation rates, but the rights consciousness that comes after legislation,” said Anna Kirkland, an assistant professor of women’s studies and political science at the University of Michigan.

“Right now, fat is just a marker of bad character, an undesirable personal trait that people bring on themselves,” said Kirkland, who prefers the word fat to the ambiguity of overweight and the clinical-sounding obese. “What you’re doing is forcing the law to force social change.”

Your thoughts?