NAAFA Statement of Support and Accountability
We at NAAFA have been closely monitoring the situation Mikey Mercedes has brought to the community’s attention involving the harm that Lindo Bacon has caused to members of the Health at Every Size® (HAES®) and fat activist communities. We strongly oppose any institution or person that discriminates, causes harm, or impedes any fat person from the respect, equal opportunity, dignity, or rights we deserve.
We share this post as an offer of transparency around our own relationship with Lindo and HAES®, and we encourage anyone who has still not done so, to read Mikey’s statement, as well as her follow-up tweets outlining accountability steps.
NAAFA is a fat rights/fat liberation organization. We are not a HAES® or health organization. We have supported the HAES® paradigm over the years, as well as Lindo’s work, in many ways since the HAES® principles were created decades ago; however, HAES® is not our primary purpose. Our mission is to end anti-fat discrimination through education, advocacy, and support.
We advocate for equitable treatment of fat people in pursuit of medical treatment. We support research that leads to better care for fat people. And it is our firm belief that fat rights and respect for fat people are in no way dependent on health status. We seek to provide space, belonging and validation for all fat people, including those who feel excluded by the current HAES® framework and by Healthism in general.
We recognize that true liberation must center the needs of the most marginalized members of the fat community: the fat folks who face multiple and compounding forms of oppression in our society. We support ASDAH, the trademark holders of HAES®, in their recent work to reframe the paradigm to better serve the intersectional fat community and all marginalized people.
We also support ASDAH in joining Mikey in naming the features of colonialism and white privilege present in Lindo’s actions, in many responses to Mikey’s disclosures, and in the history of our movements. Specifically, Mikey, Veronica Garnett (ASDAH’s Vision and Strategy Leader), and our Board Chair Tigress Osborn are among the Black people directly impacted by Lindo’s behavior and subsequent dialogue. Patterns that have emerged in the stories shared by others have also demonstrated dismissal and manipulation of fat people. Anti-fatness, too, is rooted in colonialism and the upholding of whiteness.
Behaviors and beliefs such as questioning the reliability of women of color’s lived experiences, creating artificial urgency, showing defensiveness/fragility, power hoarding, valuing individualism over community, and asserting the right to profit are all functions of white supremacy. We include our own organization among those who are accountable for these on-going harms in our movements. We are working to do better, and we will continue our current process of self-examination, repair, and change.
We maintain solidarity with Mikey, ASDAH, and all others who have been harmed by Lindo’s individual behavior, as well as by thin privilege, healthism, and white supremacy in HAES® and fat activist communities.
In addition, we commend the immense bravery displayed by those who have come forward to share difficult and painful experiences. Thank you for your labor and generosity. We hope this courage will catalyze change in the HAES® and fat liberation communities, and we are committed to supporting and being a part of that change.
In solidarity and admiration,
The NAAFA Board of Directors
Tigress Osborn, Darliene Howell, Amanda Cooper, Amithyst Fist, Christina Chase, Elaine Lee, Dawn Clark, Peggy Howell, Tamra Dozier-Garland, Tegan Lecheler, Trevor Kezon
The relationship between NAAFA and Lindo Bacon:
Many people who are or were part of NAAFA’s community are included among the founders of HAES®.
NAAFA has counted Lindo as part of our community, and we have supported Lindo’s work over the years. They have occasionally written for or been mentioned in NAAFA’s newsletter. We have discussed projects with them, considered them among many research experts that we refer media to, and affirmed them as an ally.
In 2008, Lindo’s then-recent book, Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight, was included in a NAAFA mailing to Fortune 500 CEOs. The book has also been recommended at various times via the NAAFA website.
Lindo has not spoken or presented at a NAAFA event since 2013. For NAAFA’s 50th anniversary conference in 2019, Lindo reached out to NAAFA and offered to keynote the conference. NAAFA had already chosen keynote speakers. We declined Lindo’s offer. NAAFA offered time for Lindo to present a workshop session on how HAES® could be updated from its original conception. Lindo declined.
In January, one week before NAAFA’s Ally Week 2022, Lindo reached out to Board Chair, Tigress Osborn, and asked to co-panel a discussion on differences of opinions about the role of allies. Lindo requested not to reveal the potential co-panelist until seeking their consent to participate, citing respect of their privacy. That co-panelist turned out to be Mikey Mercedes, who independently reached out to Tigress. The panel was not held, and at Mikey’s request, Tigress did not disclose to Lindo that she had been contacted by Mikey. Lindo informed Tigress that they had not been answered by “the other person.” No alternative panelist was scheduled. Tigress has had no direct contact with Lindo since Ally Week.
NAAFA has no future plans to work with Lindo in any way.