SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters)
Fat people may soon be legally
protected in San Francisco.
Prompted by an angry
confrontation over ``anti-fat'' advertising
by a local fitness club, the head of the city's Board of
Supervisors has proposed adding overweight people to the list of
those legally protected from discrimination.
``We're programmed to think it's funny, but it's not,''
Supervisor Tom Ammiano said as he directed the city's Human
Rights
Commission to look into drafting the protective legislation.
Ammiano's move late Wednesday came two days after about 25
overweight people picketed a local
gym to protest against a
billboard that warns that when space aliens finally do encounter
humans, ``they will eat the fat ones first.''
The protest, organized by self-described ``fat advocate''
Marilyn Wann, was aimed at demonstrating that overweight people
were sick of being mocked and ridiculed.
``I represent the 97 million Americans who are fat. ... It's
really not safe to alienate us, because we might just sit on
someone,''
Wann said to cheers from the demonstrators, some of whom
held
signs reading, ``Bite My Fat Alien Butt.''
The 24 Hour Fitness billboard that sparked Wann's outrage
features a leering alien face and the message ``When they come,
they will eat the fat ones first.'' The company has said it did
not mean to offend anybody.
City officials said Ammiano's proposal was being seriously
considered. San Francisco now bars discrimination on the basis
of
race, religion, color, age, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation,
gender identity (a category created
to protect transsexuals),
disability or place of birth.
Marivic Bamba, executive director of the Human Rights
Commission, told the San Francisco Examiner that adding fat
people
to the list would be relatively easy.
``We're certainly open to looking at it,'' she was quoted
Thursday as saying. ``It would fall under the issue of human
rights, and
it's not a bad idea, given the recent publicity over the
issue.''
