Mayor Eric Adams signs bill outlawing weight discrimination in New York City
Critics say it will lead to a flood of lawsuits.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Democratic Mayor Eric Adams has banned weight discrimination in New York City, which critics say has lawyers licking their chops.
Adams signed a controversial bill Friday outlawing discrimination based on a person's weight and height in employment, housing and public accommodations.
"I'm a person that believes in health, so when you talk about not discriminating against someone because of their body type, it's not fighting against obesity; it's just being fair," Adams said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"So I think this is the right thing to do," he continued. "We're going to continue to talk about our progressive health agenda. Science has shown body type is not a connection to if you're healthy or unhealthy, and I think that's a misnomer we are really dispelling."
New York City Mayor Eric Adams signed a bill banning weight and height discrimination on Friday. ((Luiz C. Ribeiro/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images))
The city's Commission on Human Rights will investigate weight and height complaints, adding to its more than two dozen other areas of examinations, including race, gender and age.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Critics, meanwhile, have taken aim at the bill, saying it will lead to a field day for lawyers and a barrage of lawsuits.
Critics say the law will lead to a flood of lawsuits. (REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez)
Republican New York City Council minority leader Joseph Borelli said that the law could open the floodgates for people to "sue anyone and everything."
'I'm overweight, but I'm not a victim," Borelli said, according to Daily Mail. "No one should feel bad for me except my struggling shirt buttons."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The New York Post's editorial board called the bill a "fat gift to NYC's bottom-feeding legal sharks."
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New York City joins a growing trend of targeting weight discrimination across the country. (Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Literacy Partners)
The law is part of a spreading trend in the United States. The New York Times reported that New Jersey and Massachusetts lawmakers are considering similar measures, while other places like Michigan, Washington State and Washington, D.C., already prohibit it.
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"Health justice" has also become a woke agenda item in universities across the country, as progressive academics have moved to eliminate "fatphobia," or the cultural stigmatization of obesity, including scrapping the word "obesity" itself, Fox News Digital previously reported.