Love Me, Love My Tofu

Neither group eats meat. But that doesn't make life easier for vegans who try to date 'murderous' vegetarians.

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  • Posted By: ReggaeDancer @ 06/12/2009 6:43:55 PM

    I'm a member on www.PlanetEarthSingles.com and it's GREAT! I live a very green lifestyle, including being vegan and Planet Earth Singles has thousands of earth-friendly, conscious members. I've dating several wonderful men and am now seeing someone very special (we're going on our 4th month together)... he may be the one! I highly recommend Planet Earth Singles for anyone that would like to meet someone eco conscious that really cares about the environment. Fantastic site!

  • Posted By: elainevigneault @ 10/01/2008 12:59:45 PM

    Watch http://meat.org and you'll see why vegetarians and vegans don't want to date or marry someone who supports that.

    • Posted By: veginator @ 05/28/2009 12:40:54 PM

      The main point of the article was to explain why a lot of VEGANS didn't want to date (lacto-ovo) VEGETARIANS, who still eat animal products and thereby cause a great deal of unnecessary animal suffering and death. Did you miss that part?

  • Posted By: larkyno @ 10/02/2008 12:37:26 AM

    I'm a vegan. I do it for health purposes and for animal rights, I don't delude myself with thinking that my personal choice not to indulge in large amounts of animal cruelty makes all that much of a difference. There is no such thing as a cruelty-free lifestyle, all we can do is our best. That said, being a vegan does make me feel better about me, I'm much happier in this lifestyle than I was when i was only a vegetarian.

    However, my boyfriend eats meat. We've been together for three years and there's no chance that I will even consider breaking up with him because of what he puts in to his body. I date him for his mind and for who he is as a person. Of course it concerns me that he doesn't seem to care about his body or the lives and deaths of so many animals. But then, we are not the same person, he does not think about the world in the same way that I think about it. Our perspectives are different in many ways and while I'd like him to stop participating in what I view as murder, he would like me to stop participating in body modifications like tattoos and piercings and extreme hair color. He would never consider altering his appearance like I have, and he doesn't think things like that are cool, but he loves me for who I am, not how I look.

    Love is acceptance. You don't have to always agree with a person in order to love them, in fact, I'd argue that you shouldn't always agree with a person. So we'll continue to walk hand in hand, him with short hair and dress pants and me with metal through my face and fluorescent hair and black-on-black wardrobe. And we'll continue to eat out together, him ordering some dead animal rot and breast milk from another species, me with some veggies stir fried in oil; and while we may disagree constantly about smaller lifestyle choices, we can easily agree that the life we want to live involves each other first and foremost.

    • Posted By: veginator @ 05/27/2009 3:22:52 PM

      To compare an ethical choice not to eat or use animal products because it is wrong to exploit, abuse and kill animals with a choice about appearance such as whether or not to get tattoos or body piercings is completely absurd--if one takes that ethical choice seriously, that is. I would consider dating someone with tattoos even though I don't have or particularly like them for the same reason that I would consider dating someone who was a few pounds overweight--minor things I don't like about a person's appearance can easily be more than made up for by other redeeming qualities (such as being vegan, for example). But I could no more be involved with a meat-eater or lacto/ovo-vegetarian than I could be involved with someone who supported the enslavement of humans. Looks matter some, but fundamental values matter a lot more.

  • Posted By: ethicalsingles @ 03/02/2009 1:44:30 PM

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  • Posted By: hvegan @ 12/03/2008 3:13:34 PM

    I agree with vegandave...I could never respect someone who has been educated to the horrors of the food animal industry and then continues to support the unbelievable cruelty. I can't be in a relationship with someone that I have little respect for. It just wouldn't work. I am vegan and married to a man who turned vegan as well after learning about and seeing the treatment of the animals he was eating. If he hadn't changed, I would have eventually lost respect for such insensitivity and gone on my way. It's not just a difference in opinion here...it's a matter of life or death, literally.

  • Posted By: vegandave @ 11/29/2008 7:58:53 PM

    I have been vegan for 16 years and I do it because animals are not commodities to be used or killed for human green, custom, or for our taste buds. Veganism as a means towards animal liberation is a core belief as strong in me as the belief that black people are equal to whites, or men are equal to woman. If I would not date a racist, or a Nazi, why would I date someone who supports the ruthless cruelty of the slaughterhouse?
    People???s actions define who and what they are ??? how could I truly love someone who I do not respect and who supports a system of abuse and killing that I abhor? The average omnivore in the US eats over 100 animals per year, how could I love or respect a person who does that?
    If someone is unaware I will give them a chance, but if after watching Meet Your Meat [Meetyormeat.com] or seeing the images in a Why Vegan or on FactoryFarming.com, they are not moved to change, then I could never have a serious relationship with that person.

  • Posted By: theshelby @ 10/05/2008 7:23:14 PM

    I've been Vegan for 16 years and do not look to only date other people who are. However, I think that most people who learn what I have want to make some of the same changes. There is usually one of the many reasons, if not animal welfare then environment, health, or world hunger. I don't expect to share all beliefs with the people I love but I would like them to have an open mind. I do the same when it comes to things I am not aware of.

  • Posted By: TeenaLee @ 10/03/2008 2:04:27 PM

    Larkyno- My boyfriend is a meat eater and I'm a vegan. It works for us as well. He has a lot of respect for my choices and ethics, and he is a very great man in his ethics too. He has better ethics in some things than I may, and vice versa. There is always a balance that needs to be found, and who am I to say I'm better than him because of the lifestyle choices I make. I don't adopt all of his, so why should he adopt all of mine?

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