The NAAFA Board of Directors is sad to announce the passing of Lynn McAfee, aka Lynn Mabel-Lois, on August 7th. Lynn was a stalwart advocate for fat people. As a fat child, Lynn was—in her own words—“wildly oppressed” and subjected to extreme measures to try to shrink her. When she learned that science had long known that weight loss and dieting almost always failed, she became angry and inspired to make change. Lynn was a founding member of the Fat Underground in the 1970s in Southern California. She then moved to Philadelphia, where she became active in NAAFA and eventually joined the Board of Directors. She and other board members left NAAFA in the early ‘90s to co-found the Council on Size and Weight Discrimination.

As friends and loved ones share their memories of Lynn, we are committed to helping further document her important, movement-wide work, as well as the individual impact she had on so many all over the world. We invite you to share memories of Lynn via this form. In anticipation of receiving many submissions, we ask that you limit your thoughts for this project to 250 words if possible. We know many of you will have lots more to share, but longer submissions may need to be truncated depending on how many people submit stories of Lynn’s life.

The form will remain open until September 1. At that time, we will compile all submissions to be shared with fat community via our website and social media. If you have documents, photos, or other items representing Lynn’s life, please use the same form to let us know if you would like help archiving those items. We will be working closely with Lynn’s loved ones to ensure that her legacy is preserved in ways that honor her and that grow the many seeds of fat liberation that she sowed and nurtured.

Other Articles from the August 2024 Newsletter