Boulder sits picturesquely at the foot of the hiking and skiing mecca of the Rocky Mountains and is known as the fittest city in America for good reason.
Intimidatingly healthy and hearty, it's a place where bars and restaurants close at 9 p.m. so locals can head out for an early morning ski or mountain bike ride before work.
It sits at 5,430 feet above sea level, which is why endurance athletes from all over the world come here to train. Boulder's social calendar is packed with an impressive array of grueling events, including an annual 10K road race in which 50,000 runners participate, a plunge into an icy lake, and a “Tube To Work Day” in which commuters ride the rapids of a Racing down the river to the inner tubes of car tires.
And then there's the annual Halloween Dash, in which residents run naked down the town's main street in front of cheering crowds, wearing nothing but a hollowed-out pumpkin on their head. Everywhere else the locals might be a little insecure, but not in Boulder, where many people are only too happy to show off their athletic bodies.
That's why it's so extraordinary that Colorado, the slimmest state in America, where Boulder is located, will become the first state in the US in 50 years to legally ban “fatphobia.” And she is not alone in her aim to legislate in this way. Across America, politicians are planning legislation to add a person's weight to the list of characteristics protected from discrimination, such as race, age, religion and sexual orientation.
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At the urging of “Fat Pride” groups, which have sometimes served as official advisers, several other states are considering similar laws, including New York, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Jersey.
Meanwhile, cities across the country have already begun passing laws aimed at preventing discrimination against fat people – including San Francisco, Washington DC and, as of last month, New York City.
As the case of super-fit Colorado shows, the push for fat acceptance is more about ideology than health.
Conservative states like West Virginia and Kentucky, which have the worst obesity problems in the country, have nothing to do with such laws. But the staunch Colorado Democrat, awakened to the core, sees himself as one of the most progressive beacons in the United States. In 2014, it became the first state to legalize “recreational cannabis.”
In fact, in almost all cases, it is left-wing cities and states that are pandering to the “anti-fat” lobby with new laws – and very often the same ones that have tried to decriminalize drug use, with disastrous results in terms of increasing addiction rates and crime.
Health experts warn that the new legal protections could further exacerbate America's horrific obesity problems caused by sugary drinks, highly processed junk food and a sedentary lifestyle by normalizing the condition.
As with Black Lives Matter and MeToo, new battles in the culture wars always begin in the US and then inevitably spread to the UK.
In 2018, London-based Danish comedian and fat acceptance campaigner Sofie Hagen (pictured) accused Cancer Research UK of “fat-shaming” after the company had the audacity to run a campaign to raise awareness of the fact that obesity is becoming more and more common Smoking is the most common preventable cause of cancer
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In fact, the fight against fatphobia has already begun in the UK. In 2018, London-based Danish comedian and fat acceptance activist Sofie Hagen accused Cancer Research UK of “fat-shaming” after the company had the audacity to run a campaign to raise awareness that obesity is caused by smoking is the most common preventable cause of cancer.
“How the hell is this okay?” She whined on social media and demanded the ads be removed.
She called dieting “dangerous” and stressed that it “has been proven time and time again to be one of the worst things you can do to your body.” The charity responded that only 15 percent of people knew about the link between obesity and cancer and that its campaign was based on science.
In America, about 42 percent of adults are now technically obese (compared to about 30 percent in the UK). The percentage of obese children in the United States has quadrupled since the 1960s and is now about one in five.
The result of all this obesity is devastating health problems – dramatically increased rates of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain cancers – as well as huge estimated annual medical costs of almost $173 billion (£138 billion) in 2019.
Blacks and Latinos are disproportionately affected, with half of African American adults obese — which perhaps explains why left-leaning politicians are so desperate to accommodate the anti-fatist lobby.
Interestingly, the fat acceptance movement has a long history in the United States. In 1967, 500 people staged a “fat-in” rally in New York City’s Central Park to protest bias. They ate, burned diet books and photos of the notoriously thin model Twiggy.
That same year, a writer named Llewelyn “Lew” Louderback wrote an article in the Saturday Evening Post headlined “More People Should Be Fat.”
Meanwhile, cities across the country have already begun passing laws aimed at preventing discrimination against fat people – including San Francisco, Washington DC and, as of last month, New York City
Colorado, America's slimmest state, where Boulder is located, is expected to become the first state in the US in 50 years to legislate “fatphobia.”
In 1969, Michigan became the first state to ban weight discrimination in the workplace, followed by Washington state, which classified obesity as a disability that could not be used as a reason for denial of employment.
But in the meantime, not much changed in obesity legislation — although campaign groups like Fatties Against Fascism and the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance were emboldened by a controversial vote by the influential American Medical Association in 2013 to label obesity a disease.
But now things have changed. And many fear that the flood of new laws – which of course appear extremely compassionate on paper – could have catastrophic consequences for both health and the economy.
They warn that weight discrimination laws not only fuel obesity but could also open the door to endless and often frivolous lawsuits against employers and companies.
An employer that fails to provide an oversized employee with a large enough desk or a restaurant that makes the mistake of seating a low-calorie guest at a comfortable table could be sued. In the Big Apple – if such a nickname is still allowed – new law introduced last month bans employers and companies from discriminating against fat people in employment, housing and access to “public accommodations” such as shops, hotels, schools and leisure facilities. It provides limited exceptions, such as for police and firefighters, when a person's weight could affect their ability to do their job.
Kathryn Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City, a business advocacy group that fought the new law, said anything like theaters that don't have wide enough seats or taxis without extra-long seat belts could now be considered “discrimination…” requiring costly ones Changes. She also pointed out that there was no evidence that overweight people were discriminated against in the city anyway.
Joe Borelli, the Republican leader of the New York City Council, said he was concerned that the new law would “give people the ability to sue anyone and anything.” And in a telling swipe at the body acceptance movement's claim that it is fighting oppression, he added: “I'm overweight, but I'm not a victim.” “Nobody should feel sorry for me, except for my problems with them Shirt buttons.”
A clue to the kinds of lawsuits and discrimination claims that businesses and public services may soon face came in statements made by fat acceptance activists to New York politicians as they considered the new legislation. Victoria Abraham, 22, who has 122,000 followers on Instagram, where she calls herself a “Fat Fab Feminist,” said she struggled with subway turnstiles that were too narrow and desks that were too small at New York University.
Tracy Cox, a soprano at the city's Metropolitan Opera, testified that she has experienced body shaming throughout her career and that in her job, “a fat singer is the rare and notable exception.”
She said work colleagues encouraged her “countless times” to develop an eating disorder or have surgery. Some parts of the US refuse to give in to the fat rights lobby. The Supreme Court of Texas, the 18th fattest state, ruled in June that the morbidly obese were not covered by its anti-discrimination law, declaring that “obesity is a physical characteristic and not a disability.”
The ruling followed a lawsuit from a 28-member emergency room doctor who claimed she was unlawfully fired from her job because she feared she couldn't endure treating patients long enough.
But fat acceptance activists feel like the momentum is going their way. These activists, many of whom reject the medical evidence of health risks, have become more aggressive in portraying fat people as victims of oppression and denouncing anything that sounds like criticism of obesity as a personal attack and even a hate crime.
Some even say that denouncing obesity is racist. Academic Hailey Otis argues that fatphobia historically boiled down to racism.
“White people tended to be thin, or at least that was the general perception, and people of color were taller and therefore less civilized,” she says. Dr. Otis grew up in Colorado and says she experienced “a lot of judgment” from people there because they didn't think she was healthy. “Fitness and health culture is a … coded way to still exclude and stigmatize fat people.”
It is this politicization of obesity, turning it into an identity issue, that has spurred new legislation in liberal states like Colorado, which actually has the lowest obesity rate in the U.S. at 25 percent.
There, state lawmakers are working on two weight discrimination bills for next year's legislative session that together would ban discrimination by employers and housing providers as well as “weight-based” bullying in schools.
One proposal is to add weight to a tough new anti-discrimination law that law firms in Colorado have warned could allow people to sue their employers simply because a colleague made a “derogatory” remark.
The legislation is moving forward even though a comprehensive study by Colorado University earlier this year found that a shocking one in six deaths in the U.S. were linked to being overweight or obese, and those conditions increased the risk of death by 22 percent to 91 percent.
“Studies have likely underestimated the mortality consequences of living in a country where cheap, unhealthy food has become increasingly accessible and a sedentary lifestyle is the norm,” said Professor Ryan Masters, who led the research. “These and other studies are beginning to reveal the true damage of this public health crisis.”
Meanwhile, in Boulder, a city so liberal that its crosswalks are marked with the rainbow colors of inclusion, The Mail on Sunday found a surprising lack of understanding about providing new protections for the dangerously obese.
Autumn Gooseff, 21, says she has a condition that makes her susceptible to diabetes, so weight control is a serious concern for her. “I work out six days a week, take spin classes and go hiking with friends on the weekend,” she said. “There is a very big difference between those who are overweight and have a healthy lifestyle and those who don't care and try to make excuses or blame others.”
Store manager Isaac McCarty, 29, was one of many locals surprised to hear that Colorado, of all places, felt the need to protect the overweight.
He admitted that although he has a close friend who really has no control over his weight, he fears that anti-discrimination laws could deter those who might benefit from trying to lose weight.
“I think we may be doing obese people a disservice if we accommodate them and make poor health decisions that are within their control,” he said. “My main goal in life is to love people – but there are limits to that.”