Size Freedom Fellowship
As the only legal advocacy project focused on fat justice and fat legal rights, the FLARE Project of Brandie Solovay’s law office is uniquely positioned to help lead the fight to end body size discrimination across the country. To support this work, we’ve launched a first-of-its-kind legal fellowship, funded by Dove, to help expand legal protections for fat people and dismantle systemic biases. The Size Freedom Fellowship will utilize legal strategies, research, and community engagement to effect meaningful change in policies, practices, and public perceptions that perpetuate weight-based discrimination. In addition, the Fellowship will work to document and expand access to critical medical services that impact some of the most marginalized fat people.
Meet Our Fellow
Image description: A pale blue square contains the text “The FLARE Project Proudly Announces Our New Size Freedom Fellow Ragen Chastain” accompanied by a picture of Ragen wearing a red collared shirt and black tank top. Next to Ragen are the logos for the Campaign for Size Freedom, NAAFA, the FLARE Project, and Dove. At the bottom, text reads “Get Involved: naafa.org/sizefreedom“
Ragen Chastain is a prolific speaker, writer, and thought leader in the field of Weight-Neutral Health, weight stigma, and weight inclusive healthcare. Ragen comes to the Fellowship with a strong background in political organizing for LGBTQIA+ rights starting in the mid-90s in Texas. She combines that with expertise in research methods and statistics and training as a Board Certified Patient Advocate and multi-certified health and fitness professional. Ragen has worked with diverse organizations from Amazon and Google to Kaiser Permanente and Planned Parenthood to conferences and colleges around the world. She is the author of the Weight and Healthcare newsletter, co-author of the Health at Every Size Health Sheets, and co-founder of the 11,000+ member Fit Fatties Facebook Group. Ragen has dedicated her career to intersectional size justice, and her unique set of skills are a perfect fit for the Fellowship.
Advisory Panel
In addition to the Size Freedom Fellow, the FLARE Project is thrilled to be creating an advisory panel of people with fat justice experience to provide additional feedback and insights from the perspective of people of color and superfat people.