While Overlawyered is often disappointing, they’ve actually got something this time with The most expensive bill ever written?  A new Massachusetts law has been proposed to eradicate discrimination against overweight and short people.

Now don’t get me wrong.  I’m neither particularly tall nor slim.  In fact, my Columbian clients have long called me “bajo y gordo,” which they told me meant “brilliant lawyer” in Spanish, although I know otherwise.   But for crying out loud, this has got to stop. 

Eradicating discrimination on certain bases (sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, medical condition, marital status, and sexual orientation), even though these may well push the limits beyond the rational and into the fashionable.  Fat, however, is not in this league.

It is foolhearty for any person or business to decide that they won’t have a fat person do a job for which they are eminently qualified.  The same is true of ugly people.  Trust me, I know from ugly discrimination.  So why isn’t ugly included in the new list?  We all know that ugly people are perceived as less worthy than beautiful people, paid less and treated like dirt.  Hey, aren’t they human too?

And then there are people who are lazy.  They sure don’t get a fair shake.  The list is as long as people’s imagination and ability to whine.  Yes, the world is full of discrimination, and a great deal of it is vital to our existence.  If a good looking guy doesn’t ask out a fat ugly woman, should she have a cause of action?

More to the point, weight has real negative ramifications.  It’s not my place to be concerned with another person’s girth, but when I’m sitting in coach on a flight, you can be I’ll be concerned when it’s come over the arm rest and into my space.  Yes, that’s right.  I want my space free from the excess of my neighbor.  Nothing personal, but keep your belly to yourself.

The health ramifications are well know.  Obesity amongst children is a national epidemic.  So the answer is to give it legal protection?  At least ugly doesn’t have health consequences. 

No doubt there will be overweight people who will hate this view.  Perhaps some will let me know how wrong I am, and how prejudiced I am, and how dangerous it is to endorse bias against the poundage challenged.  To you, I say that I am no chubby hater, but this insanity of giving legal protection to every group that feels bad about their lot in life cannot continue.  The clumsy are different from the graceful, and I don’t want to watch them perform ballet.  The artistically challenged do not have a right to have their paintings in the Louvre. 

I would not be so arrogant and condescending as to suggest that if you don’t like being fat, lose weight.  But I will say that we all go through life less than perfect, and bear the consequences of failings.  Live with it and deal with it.  The list of groups deserving legal protection has come to an end.  Fat is not the new black.