Proposed CSAI: Fat Liberation: Building Justice and Inclusion for Larger Bodies

General Assembly 2025 GA Business
,
1

Community Church Unitarian Universalist New Orleans, Louisiana and the Unitarian Society of New Haven, Hamden, Connecticut

Issue

Fat people are discriminated against in healthcare, employment, and housing and stigmatized in all areas of life. Fat liberation seeks to end this injustice, which exists at the intersection of racism, sexism, ableism, and capitalism. By studying weight bias, Unitarian Universalists can advocate for the acceptance of all bodies.

Need

The study of weight bias by Unitarian Universalists will emphasize justice and love in the face of stigmatization and discrimination; correct harm done in our denomination and society; and further the cause of bodily acceptance. Despite being a growing conversation in our society, we have not formally studied this topic.

Grounding in Unitarian Universalism

Unitarian Universalists have long advocated for justice in our interconnected world, particularly around anti-racist and feminist issues. Engagement in fat liberation would expand our denomination’s commitment to equality and love, and signal to all people that “there is no wrong way to have a body.”

Topics for Congregational Study

  1. What is fat liberation? What is anti-fat bias?
  2. How is fat liberation a justice issue?
  3. Why isn’t body positivity or even body neutrality enough?
  4. How does fat liberation intersect with anti-racism work?
  5. How does anti-fat bias tie into capitalism?
  6. How does anti-fat bias relate to healthism and ableism?
  7. How does anti-fat bias negatively affect children?
  8. Aren’t UUs already inclusive?
  9. Why is this important now?

Possible Congregational/Regional Actions

  1. Educate congregations on fat liberation, including presenting a worship service on fat liberation or showing films about fat liberation, such as My Fat Friend.
  2. Discuss how moralizing food is harmful to both adults and children of all sizes.
  3. Create resources list for furnishings (benches, chairs, etc.), films, liturgy, books, digital resources, etc.
  4. Become an accessible and welcoming physical space (seating, pulpit and chancel, doorways, bathroom stalls, clothing).
  5. Become fat liberationist in documents, programs, and worship (by-laws, worship, Religious Education, potlucks and coffee hour, leadership).
  6. Become vocal in support of fat liberation by spreading the word beyond the congregation (advertise, partner, advocate, integrate).
  7. Present a fat liberation workshop at district meetings.
  8. Advocate for legislative positions that foster fat liberation, including non-discrimination clauses in city and state ordinances.
  9. Create interfaith networks and committees.

Related Prior Social Witness Statements

UU and/or Other Organizations Addressing This Issue

  • UUA (progressive stack at GA, visual identifiers, UUA President remarks, GA accessibility accountability)
  • UU Fat Liberation Group
  • EqUUal Access (table sharing at GA)
  • National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (Tigress Osborn spoke at GA)

Other Endorsing Organizations & Individuals

UU Fat Liberation is a majority fat group of around 150 Unitarian Universalists who have loosely gathered online and in person in the last three years to organize events at General Assembly, including meet-ups, a panel discussion, and a book talk, under the leadership of Rev. Cynthia Landrum and a 10-member steering committee. This group, which is in the process of forming officially, endorses this Study Action and will collaborate on various projects and events if it is approved.

Resource List

Online Resources

Books and Other Print Resources

  • Lindo Bacon, Health At Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight (BenBella Books, 2010)
  • Lindo Bacon and Lucy Aphramor,Body Respect: What Conventional Health Books Get Wrong, Leave Out, and Just Plain Fail to Understand about Weight (BenBella Books, 2014)
  • Aubrey Gordon,What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat (Beacon Press, 2020)
  • Aubrey Gordon,“You Just Need to Lose Weight”: And 19 Other Myths About Fat People (Beacon Press, 2023)
  • Sofie Hagen, Happy Fat: Taking Up Space in a World that Wants to Shrink You (Fourth Estate, 2019)
  • Anastasia Kidd, Fat Church:Claiming a Gospel of Fat Liberation (Pilgrim Press, 2023)
  • Morales, Grimm, and Ferentini (eds.), Fat and Queer: An Anthology of Queer and Trans Bodies and Lives (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2021)
  • J. Nicole Morgan, Fat and Faithful: Learning to Love Our Bodies, Our Neighbors, and Ourselves (Fortress Press, 2018)
  • Sabrina Strings, Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia (NYU Press, 2020)
  • Sonya Renee Taylor, The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Second Edition: 2021) andY our Body Is Not an Apology Workbook: Tools for Living Radical Self-Love (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Workbook Edition: 2021)
  • Lindy West, Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman (Hachette Books, 2016)
  • Jason Whitesel, Fat Gay Men: Girth, Mirth, and the Politics of Stigma (NYU Press, 2014)

Films, Videos and Online Media

  • My Fat Friend
  • Shrill

Recording of feedback session

1 Like