Comments on: Bias based on height and weight

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 25 May 2007 09:25:00 +0000

If this law passes, Ellen, and other such claimants, will be able to sue the Boston Celtics and New England Patriots for being discriminated against in selecting a team.

Perhaps. I would not be opposed to such legislation if it only involved discrimination where it’s clearly not related to ability to do the job. In the case of the NBA, height is a legitimate factor to determine ability to do the job and would thus be protected. Or even a bouncer at a bar, for that matter; you want them big and burly to be effective.

Someone working behind a desk somewhere off on their own, on the other hand, really has no business need to be tall and slender in order to perform the job.

A common sense law would recognize when said discrimination was a legitimate business need and protect that; but “laws” and “common sense” rarely seem to intersect these days.

By: Linda Gorman

Linda Gorman — Wed, 23 May 2007 19:13:35 +0000

Should be interesting when evidence-based medicine rules for obesity prevention and treatment are up and running in MA health plan and start focusing on overweight people…

By: Barry Nordin

Barry Nordin — Wed, 23 May 2007 08:52:46 +0000

If this law passes, Ellen, and other such claimants, will be able to sue the Boston Celtics and New England Patriots for being discriminated against in selecting a team.

By: Justinian Lane

Justinian Lane — Wed, 23 May 2007 01:03:09 +0000

Is this a bad thing? If you can’t discriminate against people because of their height and weight? I mean, if I can’t decide to not hire someone because of the color of their skin, why can I decide not to hire them based upon how much skin they have?

Unless height or weight are relevant to the job, there shouldn’t be discrimination against people based upon their height and weight.

I do hope this won’t have a negative effect on Hooter’s, though.