Question:

How do libertarians feel about such laws as ‘weight and height’ discrimination?

If I own a gym or health club and want to hire people who appear to be physically fit in order to portray my business as a viable place to get into shape, I cannot exclusively hire such people anymore. People who are overweight or otherwise appear unfit would have a case for a lawsuit against me.

Under such laws, who is being deprived of their rights? Is it me being deprived of my rights over my property, my business? Or is it the weight-discriminated person who is being deprived of a job?

Also, how would this extend to, say, apartment complexes? Suppose I owned an apartment and didn’t want to rent my property to people whose sexual or religious lifestyles I don’t support.

I guess my question is: where are the lines drawn concerning rights in a libertarian view?

Answer:

In a libertarian society, the person who owns the fitness center or apartment complex decides who to hire or service. In a libertarian society, your business is just as much your castle as your home is — you decide who comes and goes.

Discrimination is part of life. Heterosexuals discriminate against romantic involvement with same-sex individuals; homosexuals discriminate against romantic involvement with opposite-sex individuals. What kind of society would we have if these lovers were forbidden by law to discriminate?

A worker has no ‘right’ to a job created by someone else. The job only exists because of the person who created it. The job is therefore the property of the creator and he or she decides who it has been created for. The same applies to apartments as well.