National Association To Advance Fat Acceptance Inc

NAAFA produces a great selection of print materials that I have found beneficial over the past 30 years. Some are ideal for well meaning family and friends but the most important I have passed on to my healthcare providers. Medical bias about size has caused me to receive inadequate care and has discouraged me from seeking much needed healthcare. Just having a well written brochure in hand can make all the difference.

NAAFA changed my life forever. I heard about NAAFA when I was 18 years old. The doctor who examined me for college admission told me that because I was fat no one would ever love me, or want me. I would never be a success. Imagine saying that to an 18 year old. I felt miserable about myself. I went on yet another diet, to lose 30 lbs and eventually regain 60. NAAFA showed me that I could be a successful, loving woman no matter what I weighed. I met people at their conventions who lived their convictions, who were fat and happy. Without NAAFA, I couldn't have had the love and success in my life that I learned I deserved. I will be forever grateful for their example and guidance.

I've been involved with this organization since 2008. They're doing wonderful work in making the world better for fat folks.

Naafa is a place where I can be accepted for myself and not the size of my pants. I can be comfortable knowing I am accepted for who I am. A place where you can find support and advocacy. Until society as a whole stops bullying people who are fat or overweight than organizations like Naafa need to exsist. Fat discrimination is so accepted in our society today it is unreal. Thanks to Naafa, I have accepted myself for who I am and not the number on a scale.

NAAFA is a wonderful organization that fights for the civil rights of fat people. We wanted to have the same rights as every one person in America and believe all people should be treated equally. Equality for Everyone is our goal. The ability to be treated as others are and to have the same rights, job opportunities and freedoms as other people are all important to every citizen.

There is a huge amount of social stigma associated with being fat, and the anti-obesity campaigns and reporting in the media are enforcing it. While it's touted as being in the interest of health, what this actually does is to create a very hostile environment, in which fat people are harassed, ostracised and discriminated against. Additionally, it negatively affects all of society, by making people unhappy, scared of food, and making them hate their bodies. NAAFA does excellent work in this field, by trying to challenge the stigma presented in the media through consciousness raising, providing alternative information and engaging with the media. This type of work is rare, and desperately needed.

NAAFA has provided an activist voice to fat people for over 40 years. It seeks to end stigma, discrimination, and promote understanding that fat people are normal human beings, that diets don't work, and fat is not as bad as the media plays out. NAAFA also has an annual convention filled with fun activism, great networking, and fun parties.

I just celebrated my 6th year as a NAAFA board member and I am truly honored to be a part of an organization that is making a positive impact in people's lives. I have met members from all over the world that are supporting our efforts. I have been honored to see how the organization has evolved with revamping its focus on civil rights, advocacy and education by developing the Size Diversity and Child Advocacy toolkits, producing guidelines for therapists, health care providers, fitness professional and other resources, like the travel tips guide to improve the lives of people of size. We streamlined and enhanced our annual national convention with sessions on advocacy training and in 2010 instituted our First international Health At Every Size (HAES) Biannual Summit. In addition we've put in a scholarship program for Fashion Design Students and for undergraduate and graduate students conducting HAES research. We're forming strategic alliances, created a chapter toolkit, launched a End Bullying Now campaign. What can people expect moving forward? Enhanced website and communication tools, continued focus on building strategic partnerships and our on-going commitment to diversity and inclusion, more guidelines and toolkits, more NAAFA chapters and a lot more. However, we can't do this work alone, we need YOU!

My membership in NAAFA has helped me to accept and love my body. As a result, I now take better care of it.

NAAFA seeks to help those who are kept down and disenfranchised in our society for their body size or weight. They work tirelessly to include weight, size and height based discrimination under anti-discrimination legislation at the local, state and national levels, have regional, municipal and national chapters and organize individuals to feel empowered in their bodies and as equal as every other person. Their work is important, their efforts honest and their results inspiring.

I found NAAFA back in 1985 through a friend who was a member. My first convention was shocking to me - in the nicest way. Here was a place where I wasn't "the other", the person who stuck out like a sore thumb. I was fat, I continue to be fat, but I am part of a group of people who think I'm valuable, weight and all. My peeps. Out in the real world, I'm hated, feared, and considered to be an object of ridicule and target for hate-speech. NAAFA has worked in the real world to make strides in providing education for health care workers, airline personnel, and children in distress. They stand up for individuals who cannot speak for themselves. I no longer hate myself for my size.

I first joined NAAFA back in 1998. I have met so many wonderful people over the years and feel that my life is richer because of this organization. I love going to the national conventions and helping spread the message of "Equaility at Every Size." I am excited to see the direction NAAFA is headed and am proud to be a part of it. I can't wait to see the changes that will unfold in the very near future and look forward to a living in a world where people are accepted just as they are.

Always looking for legitimate solutions to help the overweight community to be treated fairly.

I've been a member of NAAFA since some time in the early 1980's. This is one well-conceived, well-run, courageous organization. Imagine believing that fat people have rights, that they aren't all ugly and unloveable, that they aren't personally trying to destroy American healthcare! Who wants to be part of a group like that? ......More and more people, and as time goes by, what they have been saying all along makes more and more sense, and is backed by more and more research. As a "client served," I can thank NAAFA for getting me thru some very tough times with it's events, media and communications, and continuing efforts to educate. As a concerned professional (psychologist), I'm grateful for what NAAFA has done to support good empirical research even when it threatens powerful interests, and again what their resources have done to help me empower my own clients. Most of all, NAAFA is an amazing community which strives to be open, open-minded, and accessible all the time. I've been on the inside of some huge well-know and esteemed US non-profits, and it's not always pretty on the inside. NAAFA tries to be the best that it can be, in healthy ways. Not perfect, but open and honest. Of all the great non-profits I could vote for, NAAFA gets my vote.

For me, one of the key benefits of NAAFA is that they provide spokespeople who go onto media platforms and stand up for people of size. They make others question their preconceived ideas and prejudices, and they do it with intelligence, grace, and humour, often in the face of extreme hostility and personal attacks. As a fat person who once lived a half life because of the belief that fat people are only worthy of respect and fulfilment once they become thin, it is the voices of NAAFA volunteers and others that made me realise that I had value as a human being no matter what I looked like. But they also provide instant advocacy to address injustices as they arrive, responding to news stories, corporate practices and changes in legislation. Despite being a powerful advocacy group, they deliver their message based on evidence and simple justice - they do not simply stand on their soapbox and shout at everybody. And they provide resources to help other individuals and organisations incorporate good practice into their lives and work, that don't involve accusations or judgments but simply provide good advice and explanation of the issues.

I think the work that NAAFA does in helping to raise awareness of Issues where Fat people are not receiving equal rights is outstanding. The level of dedication of the people who work for them is out of this world with many people working for the cause, including researchers, Fat positive nutritionists and fitness coaches, Activists, writers and Event organisers. These people work tirelessly to try to one day create a world where a person's shape and size does not dictate how they will be treated. I have many fat friends who have been subjected to bullying and also refusal of medical treatment because of their weight and/or size and I have found that those who work with NAAFA always go out of their way to help find solutions to these problems or at least offer friendly advice when contacted. Basically I think they do a fantastic job and wish I could do more to support them.

NAAFA is a national organization that really speaks to what I call human rights. We all have choices. NAAFA provides a strong & professional but yet personal support system for it's members. Having been a big guy most of my life, I feel that NAAFA provides a great educational system also for the general public - and allows for everyone to make choices without discrimination. It's leaders are some of the most dedicated people you will ever meet - full of passion and compassion - and always ready to jump in with help and support. I have worked side by side with them at their annual international conferences as a vendor and have seen first hand their dedication and committment at work.

NAAFA is an absolutely essential organisation in the current environment in which fatness is widely stigmatised and fat people are vilified purely on the basis of their body size. NAAFA has increasingly been active in advocating for the rights of all people to live in a society free of weight stigma, because weight stigma harms everyone. NAAFA's work is essential in bringing the voice of fat people to the table. I have attended a number of NAAFA conferences have seen first hand how their work is literally life-changing for many people. As a result of NAAFA's work, people realise, perhaps the first time in their lives, their wellbeing IS worth fighting for. That they are not trash. They are not automatically diseased. They are not destined to sit on the side lines. They can live full and happy lives. They can improve their health, no matter what their size. They can engage in society in full and meaningful ways. They can be alive, in every send of the word. NAAFA makes that happen.

NAAFA is the hub of the wheel to persons of size. Their board of directors, volunteers and supporters work tiredlessly to champion the cause of ending discrimination against fat people once and for all. When there is an injustice perceived against persons of size, they are generally the once who come forward first on behalf of those in the size acceptance community and work tiredlessly towards resolving, enlightening or educating the public to effect change. Discrimination against persons of size has many facets, many of which the general public chooses to simply look the other way. We must all work towards ending what many in the size acceptance community consider "the last acceptable form of discrimination". For this reason fat people need NAAFA to continue championing this cause and rallying the community as one. Please lend your support to NAAFA and let's end size discrimination, one confident fat person at a time. Thanks

NAAFA does such important work. It has been the most significant civil rights group fighting for the rights, dignity and well-being of fat people for over 40 years. With the escalating "war on obesity," NAAFA is a sane voice in the world, trying to temper the damage inflicted by a prejudice that, according to a study by the Rudd Center at Yale, has as much impact as racism on the quality of lives of fat people.

Some people say that fat people experience more prejudice in hiring and getting reasonable medical care than women, Blacks, Hispanics, or old people. Behavioral attempts to turn a fat person into a thin person fail most of the time long term, and surgical intervention often fails and sometimes kills. NAAFA is, as far as I know, the oldest of what are now multiple on-line communities which assert that someone who is fat: does not lose the right to be treated with respect, to be hired for a job that matches their skills, to have a dating life, to buy clothing that fits and is of sufficient quality for a reasonable price, to have a comfortable place to sit in a medical waiting room, and many other privileges which the skinny-minnies don't think twice about. Sometimes a fat person's worst enemy is herself, and only someone who has been there knows how to help turn that around. Well-meaning fat-phobic relatives and medical providers need to be educated against the myths about fatness sold by the diet and fashion industries. NAAFA has for years provided the materials for what has more recently been called "Health At Every Size".

I am personally grateful for this organization's advocacy, information-sharing, education and support of Americans of all sizes. Their pro-active representation of a grassroots refusal to accept discrimination, and their efforts to eliminate size bias, promote human rights and uphold the Constitution.

NAAFA is a lone voice speaking for the deeply disenfranchised, those of us who are fat and often physically disabled. I'm an advocate for LGBTQ rights and have been so glad to see the gay rights movement grow and flourish in advocacy, community, and demand the right to be who they are - not a choice, just a fact. We the fat face many similar issues. The vast majority of us did not choose this - to be on the condemned fringes of society, criticized and mocked "for our own good." NAAFA and NAAFA alone speaks for us, calmly against the snake oil diet and gastric surgery salespeople who keep finding new ways to kill us for being ourselves! NAAFA insists that we have every right to exist, work, date, and go to the gym - because EXERCISE determines fitness and health, not weight! But we the fat are too often ashamed to be seen to join a gym or go out and have fun. With NAAfA we learn our rights, we find (at last!) our community, we speak up for each other and for ourselves, and we also "get to" have fashion shows, dances, and a really great time - and all in a great cause of the civil rights movement that the mainstream stigmatizes exactly like it did homosexuality 50 years ago - as a sickness. NAAFA has been here since the 60's, and I pray it will continue to stand for us until we start to win some ground.... Though I wonder whether the gay rights and race rights movements would have made the progress they have if there had already been an entrenched multi-billion dollar industry dedicated to making the gays straight or bleaching the darker races to look white.... No, it can't be done and shouldn't be tried, but at least most people seem to know that about our cousin minorities, and no one but NAAFA ever says so, and some make millions insisting, despite decades of evidence and "results not typical" ads, that we can and should be "fixed!"

For the past two years I have attended the NAAFA national conferences - once in the DC area, once in San Francisco. As a fat person living in a thin-obsessed world, this is one of the highlights of the year. I get to meet and hang out with people who believe that I am beautiful. Without issue or outward shame, we swim, dance, play games, eat, and get informed about issues related to size acceptance. I get the tools I need to live proudly and confidently in my body for the rest of the year.

NAAFA has been instrumental in helping me find peace and acceptance with my size. The members are a treasure trove of advice and information on services for super sized people like myself. The world would be a poorer place without them.

From the time I considered the idea that the focus on obesity was harmful, I sought out further science and research that would help me to understand this concept. NAAFA are a wealth of knowledge and I commend them highly for the work they do in advocacy and education to create awareness and bring awareness and change to create health equality!

My affiliation with NAAFA began in 1993. I had seen a show about a young lady who wanted to be a nurse but she couldn't fit in the desks in Nursing School. NAAFA advocated for her to make sure she had what she needed. That story had me searching, and finding, the national chapter which lead me to the local chapter, the Hill Country Chapter of NAAFA. Warmth and acceptance surrounded me as I found other folks just like me who had faced the struggles I had faced and come out the other side of their experiences stronger and filled with self esteem. I am so lucky I found them! Through the years I have maintained relationships that I first made in NAAFA all those years ago. I can always count on seeing a familiar face at any size acceptance or BBW event that I go to. Thanks to NAAFA I am sassy and happy with who I am.

I attended NAAFA's annual conference in Millbrae, California. As a first time attendee, i wasn't sure what to expect. I was happily surprised at the quality of the programming, the quality of the conference settings and thoughtfulness of the planning committee with regards to the comfort and accommodations needed by attendees. NAAFA staff was always warm, welcoming and helpful when I needed help.

I have found NAAFA to be one of the most self-less organization I have ever seen. Their support and encouragement with people of size has no equal. The Special Youth and Bullying programs should be required reading and supported. This organization does what it says it does.

The National Association for the Advancement of Fat Acceptance (NAAFA), is a champion in the trail-blazing civil rights effort to enlighten and eliminate barriers for people of size. Everyone who is engaged in the battle for civil and human rights, knows that the mission is not an easy one, and it takes passionate, experienced people to walk this walk. In that commitment, NAAFA has united people of size from every corner of the world, working tirelessly to educate each and all of us...including our health care professionals. NAAFA's reach and focus is all-encompassing; they're not only championing for the rights of adults of size, but for our children as well. As a civil and human rights professional, I can tell you firsthand, that NAAFA, Peggy Howell, Darlene Howell, and the NAAFA World Family are doing great things and positively effecting change in our midst. I hope you will support and empower them further, for the road is long and there remains much to be done. In the name of equality, thank you.

I first became aware of NAAFA when they called to collaborate in the Teen Summit our organization, The Positive Results Corporation was hosting. Wow, every person I met was positive, inspiring, beautiful and dedicated to informing the world about the importance of eliminating discrimination based on body size! The organization is outstanding, the people are outstanding. They are dedicated to changing lives and how those lives are viewed. They are an excellent collaborative partner. Not only did they show up at our Teen Summit as a dedicated and committed group, they went to great levels to support our program and organization, including providing literature, hosting workshops, engaging with the youth, their families and other community partners. Their message is clear and applies to all! Health At Every Size! Top award in my book goes to National Association to Advance Fat Americans (NAAFA)!

I am a SSBBW and as you can imagine at times I feel very out of place in everyday society. NAAFA has provided me a safe haven, where I can go out and be amoung other people of size and not feel uncomfortable or uneasy. Also, as a larger person, I truly appreciate their effort to ensure basic rights and accessability to everyday things such as healthcare, jobs, seating. All the normal things that thinner people take for granted. I am not always comfortable enough to know how to approach the subject, of the need, for proper seating in waiting rooms or places of business, however, I can print out a NAAFA brochure and hand it to the doctor, or business owner. It is very easy for people of size to feel ostrasized from society. We are constantly being put down and ridiculed for our size. All it does is perpetuate the problem. We are human beings who want the same things in life as everyone else. We want love, acceptance, encouragement and the freedom to just exist and live without constantly being beat up, abused, bullied or bombarded with people tellingus we are less than human. NAAFA fights to give us that. NAAFA, the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance is a human rights organization fighting, lobbying working hard to give people of any size the right to just exist in a world that tells us we shouldn't. I will forever be grateful for NAAFA.

I am what is considered a typical- or average-sized person. A lot of important people in my life, including my wife and my mother, are people of size. I've been involved with NAAFA since 2003 as a enthuastic supporter, an officer in the local Washington/Baltimore chapter and currently as a National Board Member. I've seen the changes that NAAFA has made on a macro scale in advocating for issues regarding size acceptance as well as on a personal scale when people say that meeting other people like them at our conventions and other events is a life-changing experience by itself. I'm proud to be involved in an organization that strives for more equality in our country and throughout the world.

NAAFA, is the civil rights organization dedicated to eliminating discrimination of fat people via advocacy, education and support. I have been on the board for 4 years and I am proud of what this organization has done for over 40+ years. We are the voice of those you find themselves voiceless, subjected to bullying, discrimination and harassment.

We are not an organization advocating to be fat, we are an organization advocating for fat people, who are entitled to a quality, harassment free life.

We organize an annual international convention, this past summer we organized the first Health at Every Size (HAES) Summit, with researchers from all over the world discussing their research and debunking the obesity epidemic and data based evidence that the traditional methodology is not the answer, the answer is embracing size diversity and encouraging healthy lifestyles based on quality measurements, not numbers on a scale.

We've revised our guidelines for therapists that have fat clients,that can be downloaded from our website. We're in the editing process of a Child Advocacy Tookit for parents, teachers, educators and others who work with children. We revising our guidelines for health care providers, which will be available via the NAAFA website.