As a person who meets the BMI qualifications to be obese, I am, of course, saddened by the AMA designating obesity as a disease. However, I'm trying really hard to find an up-side to this: does this mean that obesity is now a protected class for discrimination? As a medical condition, wouldn't it be subject to the Americans With Disabilities Act or something?

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wizardfrog-blog

You know what? I’ve seen this kind of argument a couple times today and it’s just not fucking worth it to saddle generations of people with a scientifically fallacious diseased status in the hopes that they might therefore fall under the umbrella of some other protected class. That’s really not the way it works practically, anyway. How about we both demand fat people not be stigmatized OR labeled as diseased?

-ATL

keyfruitpunch said: Eep, I’m sorry! Of course it would be so much better to not be stigmatized like that and let us be a valid body type and not a disease. I didn’t mean to offend, sorry! Maybe I’m trying too hard to find something about this to make me not so sad.

Oh jeez, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to snap at you. It’s been a long couple of days. I think the one bright spot for me (as a futurist of sorts) is how the AMA’s decision might hasten automated medicine that takes the biased doctor (or his old boys’ club) out of the equation. The more people modern medicine alienates the more demand for artificial intelligence solutions for diagnosis and even treatment. And automated physicians have the perk of not getting stuck in an infinite “weight loss prescription” loop!

-ATL

Popping in late to add: No, that’s not how it works. Trans people are currently listed in the DSM and have been for years as having a disorder called “gender dysphoria,” and it’s still perfectly legal to discriminated against them in most of the US. (If only we could get ENDA passed!) Having a disease or disorder does not mean you’re covered by the ADA.



-MG

