San Francisco Department Of Public Health Hires Weight Based Discrimination Activist As A Consultant

Virgie Tovar, a weight-based discrimination speaker and author of “You Have the Right to Remain Fat,” was hired by the San Francisco Department of Public Health earlier this week as a :weight stigma and weight neutrality” consultant, resulting in public backlash over one of the last Breed-era hirings in the city.

Tovar has been a resident of San Francisco for nearly 20 years, and has been active in weight-based discrimination since 2012. For the past 12 years, Tovar has been one of the most outspoken activists of the “fat positivity movement,” writing several books and hosting podcasts on the subject. Notably, she has been a major critic of the American Medical Association called obesity a disease, and has focused more on health than body weight in overweight individuals. She also conducts workplace weight discrimination training sessions, with clients including the Seattle Transit Agency and UC Berkeley.

In San Francisco, multiple Departments have been making multiple hirings since early November following the San Francisco Mayoral election where Mayor London Breed lost to Daniel Lurie. The incoming Lurie administration likely may not tolerate various new hirings, despite that higher ups in the city approve of these. This led to this week when Tovar was hired as a consultant and the Department of Public Health.

On Instagram on Monday, Tovar said “I’m unbelievably proud to serve the city I’ve called home for almost 20 years in this way! This consultancy is an absolute dream come true, and it’s my biggest hope and belief that weight neutrality will be the future of public health.”

However, it is currently unknown as to how she will be consulting beyond it being on “weight stigma and weight neutrality.” What is known is the terms of her contract, with the contract set to end on June 20, 2025 and the compensation for her consultancy being $12,000.

As of Thursday, the Department of Public Health has not commented on Tovar’s hiring. The consultancy itself, however, has been heavily criticized by many health experts and financial watchdogs.

“San Francisco should do what most other cities do and just have people there promote healthy lifestyles,” explained Matt Hatcher, a health consultant who has consulted on healthy eating habits for multiple health departments across the U.S., to the Globe on Thursday. “Proper diet, proper potions, exercise, keeping active. I can go on, but those are the areas to focus.

“The thing is, obesity isn’t healthy. Yes, some people can’t help but being bigger, there are ways to promote a healthy lifestyle. NFL teams, for example, hire a lot of nutritionists and consultants like me and make sure their huge 300 pound plus players are physically fit and eating right. There’s ways to do this. Hiring someone who is saying that it’s ok to be fat and things like that – it’s not a good option. The city would be better off by putting that $12,000 in a healthy lifestyle campaign or something similar. This hiring is frustrating and, frankly, show that San Francisco is trying to push not hurting peoples feelings over being healthy.”

The Department of Public Health is expected to give a more formal announcement on the hiring soon.