Below are recent Calls to Action shared with the NAAFA community
NAAFA is not overseeing these initiatives. This is our effort to support fat community and activism. These opportunities have been vetted, but we ask that you proceed with caution, prioritizing your safety and wellbeing.
Type of Action: Sign a pledge
Deadline: N/A
Organization: Whole Washington
Link: Whole Washington - Pledge to Sign
Description: We know that one of the worst places to experience body size discrimination is in the doctor's office and that finding healthcare professionals that work for you can be a huge challenge. With our current healthcare system, if you change or lose jobs, move, or leave the workforce, it means starting all over to find a new doctor. Whole Washington, a grassroots coalition of healthcare professionals and volunteers from across Washington, is working to change that. They have developed a bill that would form a Washington Health Trust (WHT), which would pay doctors/hospitals for their services directly, eliminating the involvement of insurance companies and their profit-driven motives to benefit shareholders. Doctors/hospitals would likely end up getting paid more and patients would pay less- AND everything with a billing code would be covered! Under the WHT, all doctors would be in your network so you could continue seeing the providers who work best for you. The Whole Washington legislation has also been reviewed by FLARE! and revised to ensure that the bill protects against weight discrimination.
If this work sounds exciting to you, sign the pledge letting them know you’ll sign the initiative when it’s time. If you want to do more, fill out the volunteer questionnaire, and Whole Washington's veteran volunteers will help you find the best way to get engaged and make a difference. Volunteering can be as easy as talking to your neighbors, or gym owner, or doctor's office, so don't be intimidated.
Additional Information: Even if you do not live in Washington State, you can sign the pledge to be kept informed of Whole Washington’s efforts.
Type of Action: Send a letter to your state legislator
Deadline: TBA
Organization / Affiliation: Everybody Counts Campaign, Wilmington Fat Collective, Delaware
Link: HB 115 Letter Campaign
Description: EveryBODY deserves the freedom to thrive. For people of larger size, this is not our reality. There is only one state and a handful of cities and municipalities that outlaw discrimination on body size. That means everywhere else it is legal to discriminate against someone based on their body size. Delaware is introducing legislation to change this, and we need YOUR support to make it happen. Fill out this form to send a letter to your representative about HB115 today!
Instagram Post from @defatcollective: Calling any and all supporters of the body size freedom bill 📢‼️
One of the most important tactics is for us to email our state legislators asking them to support the bill! This may feel scary but we have a form that take less than three minutes to fill out. There is already an email written out and it will auto send to your legislators. This is an easy and IMPACTFUL way to support HB 115 ♥️.
What if you don’t live in DE? Please DM us, we have a list of the committee members that will be voting on this bill who also need encouragement 👀.