[Culture] Florida's Dwarf Tossing Law Could Be Repealed to Ease Dwarf Unemployment

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Rep. Ritch Workman, R-Melbourne, is tired of Florida's Big Brother government standing in the way of people getting jobs. Jobs that include being tossed around by drunk dudes specifically, so he's on a mission to repeal the state's two-decade-old ban on dwarf tossing.


"I'm on a quest to seek and destroy unnecessary burdens on the freedom and liberties of people," Workman told The Palm Beach Post. "This is an example of Big Brother government."

"All that it does is prevent some dwarfs from getting jobs they would be happy to get," he added. "In this economy, or any economy, why would we want to prevent people from getting gainful employment?"

So Workman has filed a bill to repeal a 1989 law that bans dwarf tossing in the state.

Dward tossing, originally made popular in Australia, involves little people suiting up in Velcro-clad suits, usually at bars. Then patrons compete to see who can through the person farthest up a Velcro surface. The Little People of America lobbied to have the practice outlawed in Florida.

"Aside from the physical dangers, dwarf-tossing is a demoralizing activity that treats the person with dwarfism as a mere object," said an LPA official at the time.

The ban was passed by a large margin by the then-Democrat controlled legislature and signed into law.

The LPA's stance has not changed since.

"The possibility of getting paralyzed is high," David Dodge, Florida district director of the Little People of America, tells the Post, "and then to be used as an object for people's amusement is very degrading."

Perhaps legislators like Workman should be focused on creating high paying, respectable jobs to the state instead of unsafe, demeaning jobs. We hate to use the slippery slope argument, but Workman's logic could also be applied to other "jobs" like prostitution.
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