About FLARE!

All proceeds of the Fat Girl Clothing Swap will be going to FLARE!. Below is some information about what FLARE! does for the fat community:

"There’s nothing you can do."

For many people who experience weight discrimination and seek an attorney’s help, this is the answer they get time after time, call after call. With few laws prohibiting weight discrimination and few lawyers trained to fight it, the FLARE! Project is currently one of the only places to turn for support and encouragement.

What is FLARE?

FLARE is a shape that spreads outward! FLARE is a sudden burst of flame! FLARE is a sudden burst of light used to communicate or illuminate! FLARE! is the Fat Legal Advocacy, Rights, and Education Project of the Law Office of Sondra Solovay.

Who uses FLARE?

FLARE! consults with victims of weight discrimination, their friends, families, and allies. FLARE! assists attorneys looking for resources and information about how to tackle fat discrimination. Many lawyers want to help fat people fight for their rights, but with little legal precedent they need guidance, community, and someone who can "talk law."

What kind of legal issues can FLARE! help lawyers or lay people with? Fat people face law-related challenges in many areas, including:

• Child custody: Children have been removed from homes based on their weight; adoptions have been denied to loving people based on their own weight.
• Employment: Jobs and benefits have been denied based on weight. Even “thin” people who are not thin enough can be victims of this discrimination.
• Intersectionality: Frequently weight and race discrimination go hand-in-hand.
• Accommodations: Fixed seating is often inaccessible for fat folks.
• Access to goods and services: People are denied the right to run businesses; plus-size stores are discouraged in malls or communities.
• Respectful, non-biased medical care: Medical care is made dependent on weight loss; surgeries and dieting are recklessly prescribed.

FLARE! provides information about approaching these difficult situations. Even when there is no "easy fix," FLARE! encourages creative action, rather than passive defeat.

What services are available?

Under the auspices of the FLARE! Project, attorney Sondra Solovay provides an initial complimentary meeting via email or in person with the victim of weight discrimination or an attorney attempting to deal with a weight-related problem. Depending on the situation, affordable, sliding scale services though the Law Office of Sondra Solovay, non-legal advocacy, or expert witness testimony are available.

Sondra also promotes awareness of weight discrimination as a civil rights/diversity issue within the legal community on both a small and a large scale.