Calling someone ‘fat’ could become a hate crime in UK
May 30th, 2012 - 8:08 pm ICT by Aishwarya BhattLondon, May 30 (THAINDIAN NEWS) The leading charity Central YMCA is supporting the plans of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Body Image, which could soon make the use of words like fat to ridicule someone a hate crime in the UK.
The report Reflections on Body Image by this group of MPs and the charity suggested that appearance-based discrimination should be legally investigated and punished on the same way as gender and ethnic discrimination.
The Equalities Act 2010 prohibits the harassment, victimisation or discrimination of any individual on the basis of ethnic background, gender, sexual preferences, age or any other physical characteristics.
An amendment to the Equalities Act has been suggested by the parliamentary group.
Rosi Prescott, Central YMCA’s CEO, stated that the British society should be more accepting of individuals suffering obesity. She also suggested that there is no need for telling anybody that they are obese.
Over 66% of all UK adults are overweight. Experts estimate that this number will raised over the next years. Jo Swinson, the group’s Liberal Democrat chair, agreed with Rosi Prescott’s views, but claimed that she is not personally convinced that an amendment of Equalities Act would be the best way to tackle appearance-based discrimination.
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Tags: body image, central ymca, charity, equalities, ethnic background, ethnic discrimination, harassment, hate crime, jo swinson, liberal democrat, mps, obesity, party parliamentary group, physical characteristics, prescott, reflections, sexual preferences, uk adults, uk london, victimisation