Welcome listeners of Louisville-based radio station WFPL 89.3. If you’re accessing this site in response to the State of Affairs segment today on fat acceptance and weight-based discrimination, here’s an introduction. The site was conceived after a blogger wrote a three-part special entitled Fat Hatred Kills. The response to Thorn’s poignant story was an onslaught of similar stories of weight-based discrimination in health care. This site strives to provide an outlet for people to share their experiences with hopes the stories will prove to be self-empowering and work to change the discriminatory landscape prevalent in too many doctor’s offices and hospitals.
The stories here are heartbreaking in their brutal honesty: Scores of fat people denied adequate and competent health care from medical professionals who couldn’t see past their fat to diagnose and treat the problem. This is, in fact, one of the primary reasons why more fat people don’t go to the doctor until, in some cases, it’s too late – they don’t want to be bullied by those who’ve taken an oath to “First, Do No Harm.”
This site was borne as a way for people to speak out about the discriminatory treatment they’ve received. If you’ve been the victim of fat-discrimination in health care, find out how to lodge a complaint here or send us your story here. You are not alone.
First, Do No Harm 