Wow, what a year! A look back at 2024
[Image description: Collage of NAAFA Board Members and staff at 2024 events across the country; the Plus Bus Fat Brat Pool Party, Bigger Bodies Boston Pool Party, FatCon in Seattle, the Fierce Fat Flea in San Francisco, the PDX Block Party in Portland, and Impact Conference in Austin, Texas.]
By Tigress Osborn, Executive Director of NAAFA
As we prepare to flip the calendar page (or scroll to the next calendar screen), we’d like to take a moment to recap 2024. It wasn’t easy (and we know next year won’t be easy, either) but it’s important that we celebrate our community’s wins.
Our mission to change perceptions of fat remains at the top of our to-do list, and we spent a lot of time working with journalists on authentic representation. We were excited to start the year consulting with the team at the AP Stylebook on the introduction of guidance for how to talk and write about fat people, especially using respectful terminology for those of us who prefer not to be referred to using any o-word terminology.
We had one of our biggest media moments ever when I was chosen for the Time100 Health Leaders list. It was an honor to be chosen, and this recognition put NAAFA on the radar of people who never would’ve known about us otherwise. But the biggest honor for me was the outpouring of love and pride from my own community!
2024 also saw other important media mentions, including CNN’s TV on the Edge documentary series including my insights on the legacy of Oprah’s infamous red wagon incident, the Washington Post covering our efforts to get Southwest Airlines to commit to continuing their Customer of Size policy, and the National Organization for Women featuring fat rights on their Feminism NOW podcast. Podcast fans can rewind the year to hear about NAAFA on 16th Minute (of Fame), Weight for It, Big Sexy Chat, and more!
The Campaign for Size Freedom is still on the job, supporting laws to ban size discrimination and recruiting collaborators and allies to help us pass such laws. The Colorado Alliance for Size Equity (CASE) – co-founded by NAAFA in 2023 – saw our first win as Colorado passed the Student Weight-Based Bullying Prevention Act. Fittingly, the bill was signed by the Governor in June and went into effect during Fat Liberation Month! In addition to working directly with legislators and local activists, we also presented about intersectional advocacy against anti-fatness at several conferences this year, including FatCon (Seattle), Weight Stigma Conference (Colchester, UK), Supersize Your Life Expo (Atlanta), and Philly Fat Con.
Blog Editor Samantha Puc took the helm of the NAAFA Community Voices Blog, and relaunched our blog with pieces from accomplished writers like August Owens Grimm and Chrissy King and long-time advocates like Sami Schalk and Ragen Chastain. We’ve featured so many talented writers this year, and there’s so much more to come in 2025. Catch up on posts you missed at naafa.org/blog.
By the end of this year, we will have produced 35 virtual events! The NAAFA Webinar Series and Marcy Cruz’s Ahead of the Curve brought our community interviews with some of the best and brightest fat leaders, artists, and influencers. Vanessa Chica’s writing workshops inspired creative expression (and the writers have a big surprise for you coming in 2025). Fat Fridays Virtual Social Club celebrated another year of warm and safe space for fat people to come together for fun and friends. Our virtual brunch team and special performers continue to delight audiences. And, of course, we celebrated our 4th Annual Fat Liberation Month with annual fave events and extra episodes of our series.
We accomplished all of this and more in 2024. We couldn’t have done it without all of our hardworking volunteers, and I’m especially grateful to work with the NAAFA Board of Directors. Not only do they dedicate hours and hours of their time every month, 100% of this year’s board has made a donation to NAAFA to help us Fund Fat this year. If you haven’t already done so, I hope you’ll join them, and me, as we give what we can to sail past our $15,000 December fundraising goal. As soon as we do that, our friends at Burnt Toast will match it with another $15,000!
Be sure to follow us on social media @naafaofficial for 2024 photo and video flashbacks for the rest of this month. Thank YOU for all the ways you have given the movement for fat rights your love and support in 2024!
