Anti-obesity: The New Homophobia?

Is Fatphobia The Last 'Acceptable' Prejudice?

This week a Boston-area doctor revealed she will no longer accept patients who weigh more than 200 pounds, because fat people are dangerous deviants who should go to "obesity centers" to get treated for their "disease." Earlier this summer, a gay man accused a New Jersey doctor of refusing to treat him because, allegedly, she attributed his need for medical care to "going against God's will."

"Homosexuality" and "obesity" are both diseases invented around the turn of the previous century. Prior to that time, being sexually attracted to someone of the same gender or having a larger than average body were, to the extent they were thought of as social problems, considered moral rather than medical issues: That is, they were seen as manifestations of morally problematic appetites, rather than disease states.

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