From a young age I had no doubt that both boys and girls were beautiful to me. Growing up in a home where my parents were also foster parents, I was exposed to lots of different types of kids. Not only the privileged kids that I went to school with, but the children who didn’t come from a “stable home” with two parents who paid attention to them and showed them love every day. I learned that people are interesting and loveable no matter how they grew up.

According to Meriam Webster, Asexuality (Ace) is: not having sexual feelings toward others : not experiencing sexual desire or attraction. Basically, it is an inborn absence of sexual desire.

Fat Liberation or Body Positivity can be hard spaces for Asexual people to navigate sometimes because for many, body liberation also includes sexual/sensual aspects of their lives. For myself personally, talk of fat sex/pleasure or images of those things makes me uncomfortable.

Finding safety in Queer spaces can be hard for Asexual people. When you are Fat and Asexual, it also comes with all the Fat bias, weight stigma, Fat hate too.

Asexual people are not wrong or broken or looking for attention. We are here and we are valid.

June is Pride Month! While the LGBTQIA2S+ community and allies celebrate the month with parades and activism events, gay, trans and queer folx deal with biases and discrimination on a daily basis. Compound that with being a person of color and you add a layer of racism to that. This month’s anti-racism resources look specifically at that intersection.

Happy LGBTQIA+ Pride Month 2022!

This month and every month, I’m proud to be a queer and nonbinary trans person, a fat-attracted person married to a wonderful superfat queer gender non-conforming / butch / mas(s)culine-presenting woman, and an ally in the fat liberation movement.

I am not writing this piece to receive “ally cookies” (rewards from an oppressed community for supporting them in ways that everyone should as part of being a mensch, a good person).  My kavannah, intention, is to show other thin people some ways they can begin, maintain or grow their practice of allyship with the fat community.  Whether we are LGBTQIA+ or not, wherever we are and go in life, we can and must share the good news of fat liberation.  We must center fat voices, and we must add our own in solidarity.  It is not always safe, or without cost, but it is far safer and less costly for us than for fat folks.

For the latest information and research on fatness, check out the Media & Research Roundup. This issue features: body positivity and what "everyone knows"; Texas State Troopers are facing disciplinary action based on their waist circumference; how food hierarchies can be antifatness, classist and racist; a petition against weighing children in school, and more!

NAAFA is excited to show our support to QWOCMAP’s Queer Women of Color Film Festival. QWOCMAP’s Queer Women of Color Film Festival, their signature event, is hosted this weekend in San Francisco (June 10-12). The festival is FREE to attend (registration required). There is fat-friendly and accessible seating available. Be sure to check out the COVID safety procedures if you are planning to attend in person. The festival will also have an encore virtual screening. Join QWOCMAP’s mailing list for more info. NAAFA is a co-sponsor of Saturday night’s Centerpiece Screening, Hearts Aflutter. Hearts Aflutter features several short films, including fat protagonists on screen and fat filmmakers behind the camera. Additional info and registration at link in bio.

The NAAFA Chronicles reflect a piece of fat acceptance/fat activist history. In the December 1986 issue, you will find: a review of the news from 1986 relative to NAAFA and fat acceptance!

When I was 10, the doctor told my mom that I was 30 pounds overweight. At the time, I weighed 120 pounds and according to the infamous “chart”, I was supposed to weigh 90 pounds. It would impact the choices I would make along the way in everything from relationships and job-related experiences to how I view weight loss.

I was diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder and was told that what I was experiencing was depression. At that moment, I was speechless. There was a name to what I was going through. And it made me reflect on my life as a whole. My therapist told me that I probably developed this as a child because of that experience when I was 10 and she said that she was in awe that I had dealt with this for so long on my own.

So every year, when May rolls around, I celebrate Mental Health Awareness Month by sharing my story. It continues to evolve. No one is perfect and it’s perfectly okay to seek help when you need it.

CW: Discussion of intentional weight loss and weight loss surgery complications.

The NAAFA Chronicles reflect a piece of fat acceptance/fat activist history. In the November 1986 issue, you will find: discussion from a conference at the NY Academy of Science that diet-based approaches to permanent weight loss are "a disaster" and should be abandoned, updates on WLS procedures and more!

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. In this edition of NAAFA’s anti-racism resources, we focus on Asian American and Pacific Islanders: history of Asian Americans; contributions made; what each of us can do to break the cycle of racism and violence against our AAPI family, friends and neighbors.

For the latest information and research on fatness, check out the Media Research Roundup. This issue features: "A Jar of Fat", a play written by Seayoung Yim, Plus Size Mommy takes on ABC and media that get plus-size pregnancy risks wrong, Tigress Osborn talks about NAAFA's work with Google in developing guidelines for inclusivity in marketing, and more!

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. To our Asian and Pacific Islander community members, we honor you and past generations of Asian and Pacific Islanders who have made positive contributions to American history, laying the groundwork for future generations to continue their important work.

The NAAFA Chronicles reflect a piece of fat acceptance/fat activist history. In the October 1986 issue you will find: the declaration of fat independence, protesting Oprah Winfrey’s statements on national television, making employment a higher priority, and more.

Each month, we will be featuring educational resources on the NAAFA Community Voices Blog. Some resources will be historic information about systemic racism. Others will be resources on doing the internal work of understanding ourselves and how we play a part in that system. There may also be actions that can be taken to directly oppose racism. You can find more resources on the NAAFA website at https://naafa.org/antiracism-resources.

Dr Caitlin (Cat) Pausé, scholar, a mentor, a teacher, an activist, and a tireless advocate for fat rights, passed away in her sleep on March 26th, 2022. Dr. Angela Meadows shares her memories of Cat and the accomplishments she made in fighting for fat community.

“The cultural shifts around acceptance of fat and questioning the diet industry and the pervasiveness of diet culture, some of those things have empowered more fat people individually to think about, ‘Oh, when my rights are being violated, this is not my fault.’ ” - Tigress Osborn, NAAFA Board Chair

Riding the wave of these cultural shifts, there are two legislative bills currently making their way through the State Houses of Massachusetts and New York.

Happy Poetry Month! Poet, Vanessa Chica Ferreira, shares some of her poetry with us. She states, "Poetry for me is the ability to create, connect, release, contemplate, be petty, to remember, it is to heal, inform, be used for activism, to honor my mother’s memory. It is a shapeshifter that changes with my needs. Poetry helps me unlearn what I was taught about how to exist in a fat body. It gives me the courage not only to advocate for myself but also for others." Vanessa also invites readers to consider writing an "I am more than" poem themselves!

When people talk about diversity and inclusion in the workplace, they are usually referring to diversity as presented by ethnic, racial, gender identity, disability, and sexual identity demographics. Less often is body diversity considered. It has been reported that employers often perceive fatness as a sign that the fat person has less leadership potential, is not as intelligent, is less qualified and costs the employer more than their "normal" sized peers. Fat employees often receive a lower starting wage than employees with smaller bodies. The fact that body size is not covered by anti-discrimination laws in most states or other legislative districts affects everyone with marginalized identities.

For the latest information and research on fatness, check out the Media Research Roundup. This issue features: lack of plus-size representation in fashion week, being weighed at the doctor’s office, anti-discrimination in Brazil, WW’s violation of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act Rule and more!