State of Mississippi to legally mandate discrimination?
Posted by wolfger on February 2, 2008
I found out from a friend of mine late last night that there is a bill (pdf) proposed in the MS state legislature that would prevent restaurants from serving food to obese people. Now the first thing that springs to my mind is the phrase, “I’m sorry sir, but you obviously love food too much. We can’t give you any.”
Humor aside, this is very troubling in that the state is not only considering allowing businesses to discriminate against overweight people, but actually forcing them to do so.
OK, back to the humor… let’s look at the bill:
…shall apply to any food establishment that … has five (5) 13 or more seats for customers.
So I can still pig out at Diary Queen or Hot’N'Now. That’s a relief.
The State Department of Health shall prepare written materials that describe and explain the criteria for determining whether a person is obese
So the law itself doesn’t define the criteria, or how they are to be applied. I’m desperately curious what methods will be used. Will restaurants have to weigh people, and measure their height? Just how ridiculous will this be?
may revoke the permit of any food establishment that repeatedly violates the provisions of this section.
Penalty for serving food to a fatty: you’re out of business.
This is slated to go into effect on July 1st of this year, although it’s not clear to me whether or not the bill has already been voted on. That’s just the effective date listed within the bill itself.
