A TV actor who is 4ft 11 has revealed the "heightism" he has faced all his life and now wants cruel taunts treated as a hate crime.
Hank Osasuna said his life is made a misery by people making vile comments to him about his height as he does the most simple things, like his grocery shopping.
The 49-year-old said a trip to Sainsbury's last month resulted in one of the many countless horrendous experiences he has had.
After spotting Hank, a complete stranger, aged around 70, started singing a derogatory song towards him about a "little man".
It got worse when Hank passed the man again in the aisle, as he then started singing "heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it’s off to work we go" from Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs.
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Hank, who lives in Carshalton, south London, and has appeared as various characters in Keith Lemon TV shows, confronted the man who "completely denied doing anything".
Hank said: “I went up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder and said ‘singing songs about short people are you’ and then I think I just called him a f****** idiot.
“I’ve never really been an overly aggressive person. I never like to get into fights or confrontations.
“He really hurt my feelings and made me feel sad and I don’t really understand why he felt the need to make it into an issue and sing it in front of me.”
The abuse in Sainsbury’s was so “horrible” Hank said he would classify it as a “hate crime” and wants something done about the heightism abuse people receive.
“If I walked up to someone in Sainsbury's and said ‘you’re a fat b****** aren’t you’ or something, I would consider that a hate crime as well,” he added.
Research shows that "heightism" - a negative attitude to people on grounds of their height - can cause serious psychological problems.
A Swedish study found recently that shorter people are significantly more likely to die by suicide.
“It makes me feel like I’m not as equal as other people; which obviously isn’t a nice way to feel,” says Hank.
“It just makes me feel really awful, and I think you can’t get away with that stuff nowadays.
“If I made a comment about somebody based on their gender, sexuality, weight or appearance, that ought to be considered as a hate crime so I think what happened to me is a hate crime definitely.”
The abuse Hank receives goes back to his childhood.
He said: “Getting called 'midget' quite a lot when I was younger was hard to take.
"It makes it quite hard to get a girlfriend, women nowadays think 5ft 7 is quite short so someone who is 4ft 11 doesn’t have much of a chance really.
Hank often does his best to not respond when people make horrible comments, but he says there are times when it becomes "too much."
He added: “In a way I wish I hadn’t reacted in Sainsbury's because it sort of made me all fired up, but normally I just tell people to get lost.
“Usually I try to not react and keep a level head.”
Growing up, Hank was given mixed messages about how to deal with bullies.
“I was told 'don’t worry about it, just ignore it' but then my brother said I should just punch someone in the face if it happens,” he said.
Hank added: “I am much more comfortable in my own skin than I used to be but what happened in Sainsbury's caught me by surprise and I was surprised with how much it affected me.”
He also wants to do away with using the term "dwarf" to generally describe small people, because of how cruel it can be.
“When somebody is a dwarf it means they have a physical/biological defect," he said.
"I have been called a dwarf before but obviously I am not a dwarf, I am naturally short.
“It’s a derogatory term used by people, it is used to hurt somebody’s feelings."
