It's summer and along with the season comes lots of opportunities for socialization. And that's a good thing, at least in my opinion. But these opportunities can be fraught with problems for vegans. Here's a case in point: My fiance and I were invited to a BBQ on Friday night that has a "bacon theme." It actually says in the description of the party that there will be mental health professionals standing by to help rehabilitate anyone who does not eat bacon.
I kinda felt like that was directed right at us, since I am pretty sure we're the only vegans amongst that circle of friends.
I tried to be lighthearted and play along. I posted that we may go and wanted to make sure that bacon consumption wasn't mandatory. The host wrote back that it's not, but we could avail ourselves of professional help to get us back on the bacon-eating path. One of the other guests suggested I should be burned at the stake. Nice, huh?
I know everyone is joking and it's all in good fun. People really enjoy making fun of vegans. And you know what? We bring a lot of it on ourselves by being judgmental asshats. That said, can you, as a Meat Eater, really claim your dietary choices are superior to mine?
We already know how evil factory farming is. We already know what a detriment our gluttony for animal flesh is to the environment. And we have a bevy of studies that indicate a link between consumption of animal products and disease. We certainly don't have any warm and fuzzy evidence that eating animals is good for ANYONE.
I've started answering the "good-natured" ribbing by my friends, who will regularly make comments, post memes on my facebook wall and the like, in this manner: don't make me break out the animal cruelty videos. In other words, you keep your lifestyle to myself and I will too.
I don't want to be one of *those* vegans, so don't make me, m'kay?
How would my vegan comrades have responded?
