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Committee hears testimony urging law to ban height and weight discrimination
Summary
Medical students, disability advocates and civil‑rights groups testified in favor of H.1919/S.1249 to add height and weight to protected classes, describing discrimination in health care, schools, employment and public accommodations.
Doctors, medical students, disability advocates and people with lived experience urged the Judiciary Committee to add height and weight to Massachusetts protected‑class law and to give victims a statutory remedy.
"Discrimination based on weight happens in all aspects of a person's life," testified Brandy Solovey (legal director, Independent Living Resource Center), who described housing and employment barriers and urged the committee to add explicit protections for height and weight. Medical students and clinicians said weight discrimination undermines public health, discourages care-seeking, and produces harmful clinical interactions — one medical student described watching a clinician fat‑shame a patient rather than address the presenting medical problem.
Advocates argued the bill would not require wholesale retrofits of facilities but would empower people to request reasonable accommodations and give the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination a statutory basis to adjudicate and remedy systemic harms. Clergy and civil‑rights groups framed the bill as an extension of existing state equity commitments.
Supporters asked for a favorable report to make Massachusetts among the first states to adopt explicit size‑protections; no committee vote was taken during the hearing.
