Free Republic

David Lopez, 44, weighs over 400 pounds, has diabetes, hypertension, asthma, and has trouble walking or standing for prolonged periods of time, but Lopez started attending Wayne State University with the hefty goal of being a high school gym teacher. When Lopez got his doctor to sign a medical waiver for him during the student-teaching requirement of the program, he demanded that the university let him conduct his student teaching virtually. Wayne State University refused

The newspaper ad inviting fat people to learn about El Camino Hospital's new weight-loss surgery program held out the opportunity to be not just a thinner person, but a better one. "It's not what you have to lose," the Mountain View, Calif., hospital ad said. "It's what you have to gain. Pride. Dignity. And Better Health." Marilyn Wann, 5-feet-5, 270 pounds and darn proud of it, scanned the ad and fumed: How dare they imply that fat people are not proud, or that dignity is reserved for the thin? Wann threw down the newspaper. Then she smiled and began to...