This is a super quick blog post to let you in on some good news.
Viva! Campaigns is of course a tremendously successful and loved animal protection and lobbying group that has been busy promoting veganism for many years.
How many years? The group just celebrated its 25th anniversary!
As part of their quarter of a century celebrations, Viva! has handed out a bunch of awards for people, groups, and businesses that they believe have done a great job in improving outcomes for animals.
And I was awarded one!
After almost a decade of running this blog and all the associated social media accounts, it is a real thrill to be appreciated in this way by a group that I respect so deeply.
Massive love and thanks goes to the entire Viva! team for everything they do to make the world a better place.
And thank you from the bottom of my chubby gay heart for this recognition. It is a wonderful feeling.
You can see all of the Viva! award winners online here.
Have you ever felt like the only LGBTQIA+ person in the vegan village?
Join Fat Gay Vegan (that’s me!) at VegfestUK London for an hour-long social event designed especially for LGBTQIA+ plus vegans and their allies.
Eat cupcakes with your community, share and listen to stories, and of course make new friends!
There will be two one-hour sessions (Saturday and Sunday October 26 and 27, 2019 1pm – 2pm) located on Level 2 of Olympia Central (located within the Natural Therapy Zone). You can see the floor plan here.
The sessions will be informal socials. Nobody will be lecturing you about anything. It is simply designed to be a social space for queer vegans.
Let’s hang out!
VegFestUK London is a huge, two-day event showcasing vegan living. Enjoy talks, cooking demos, new products, good eating in the food hall, drinks, music, and so much more.
Did you know that I write a monthly column for Vegan Life Magazine? The following is one of my past columns. If you want to subscribe to the mag, you can find out more online here.
The power of saying “No, thanks. I’m vegan”
We’ve all been there. That awkward moment when you are out with friends, work colleagues, family members or even people you don’t know all too well and somebody offers you something to eat or drink that isn’t vegan.
There can be an uncomfortable silence and you can often feel a huge desire to not want to offend people or come across as a difficult vegan.
Well, I’m here to tell you it’s OK to say no to non-vegan offerings with a friendly confidence.
Actually, it’s more than just OK.
Learning to love saying “I’m vegan” gives you confidence in your beliefs, affords people a super quick insight into the type of person you are (i.e. kind!) and acts as a form of outreach to help spread your compassionate message of caring for animals.
For some people, becoming confident and comfortable with the decision of going vegan and being vocal about it takes time. One of the best ways to become assured of your own veganism is to talk about it and this can include something as simple as turning down non-vegan food.
I strongly believe a confident vegan is an attractive friend prospect to most people, not just other vegans.
When it comes to picking my friends and the people around me, there is nothing more important or admirable than a person who believes strongly in something positive and takes an unwavering stand on that topic.
You are going to look like a person of your convictions to those around you if you employ a zero-tolerance approach to non-vegan food items. I’ve been vegan for twenty years and one of the things my friends say they love about me is my commitment to the causes in which I believe.
A confident person who can be unapologetically vegan with a smile on their face is not only an admirable person, they are also the best form of activism.
When a kind and approachable vegan stands firm and friendly in their convictions, it is the best advertisement for veganism. When people see you sticking to your beliefs yet still getting on with life and enjoying the company of those around you, it can be the inspiration they need to start thinking about taking that step themselves.
It’s not being preachy to say “No, thanks. I’m vegan.” It’s being true to yourself and it is just one of the ways you are working to improve outcomes for animals.
The majority of vegans you know haven’t always been vegan, so they must have had a first time hearing about the lifestyle.
Think of how many people’s first time you can be if you find a way to say no to non-vegan food. By politely but assuredly turning down non-vegan food and drink, you might just be positioning yourself as the seed that will one day sprout and take someone on their compassionate journey.
Seeds sprouting into compassionate journeys? Yes, even my metaphors are vegan.
Of course it isn’t always plain sailing when you are the only vegan in your social group. People can sometimes take your vegan stance as an attack on their choices or even come to see you as a ‘sanctimonious inconvenience’ (yes, that happened to me and still stings).
It can be a tricky balancing act to manoeuvre within certain groups of friends and family, but it is completely OK to stand your vegan ground even when some individuals will see your lifestyle choice as a challenge.
It’s completely understandable how the concept of veganism will be met with some resistance when you consider how ingrained the use of animals is in our society. Heck, they are even in our money!
But that is exactly why we are vegan. We want to help enact a change in these attitudes and practices in order to cause less harm. A little social awkwardness is surely a small price to pay as we find our vegan feet and save the planet.
You can gently yet firmly reassure people that your choice to not consume animal products is based on how you feel about the world around you (and animals!) and is not an attack on their personal consumption of ribs, rumps and legs. You can do this in a good-natured way that doesn’t have to lead to offense being taken.
It’s your decision and your life being affected, not theirs. Being self-assured and happy with your choices is one of the best parts of living vegan. Learn to enjoy it.
I know a lot of people enjoy celebrating their vegan anniversary because the milestone can be an exciting time to pat yourself on the back and take stock of how far you’ve come.
It feels good to feel good!
It can also be an opportunity to look back on how much has changed for vegan consumers in the time since you decided to be totally plant-based.
I don’t actually recall the date I went vegan, even though it did happen overnight and on a specific date in 1999 (I think!). All I know is that is was about twenty years ago.
Left: Just vegan Right: Old vegan
My home at the time was in Chiswick, London. Josh and I lived in a one-bedroom apartment with my sister and her partner. Yes, Josh and I had the lounge room as our bedroom.
I could very well have travelled through life indefinitely thinking I was the height of compassion if it wasn’t for one pesky little invention known as the World Wide Web. Josh and I invested in some painfully slow dial up Internet connection and it was a revelation. The Internet was the late nineties version of that chicken truck pulling up beside me in western Sydney, but this time I was being awakened to my culpability in the suffering of egg laying birds and milk producing cows. Via rudimentary chat groups and early versions of forums, I started to be exposed to people who opted out of relying on any and all animal- derived products. I was so reliant on milk and cheese at the time I went into shut down. Wasn’t it enough to not eat the animals? Surely I was to be applauded for my commitment to animal welfare? Then I discovered that many wines are treated with animal products like egg whites, milk protein or fish products to get rid of some of the leftover solids. This sent me into a complete tailspin. There I was thinking nobody loved animals more than I, while cows were being forcibly impregnated in order for me to guzzle their milk. Cows need to be pregnant or new mothers for their bodies to produce milk and as we know, mammals don’t get pregnant on their own. The discovery that dairy cows went through pregnancy repeatedly for my milk was confronting. Chickens, even those advertised as cage free, were wildly mistreated in shocking conditions for my occasional egg habit including my desire for albumen, or egg-white clarified red wine. There must have been a few weeks of this information dripping through to me during which I still consumed dairy and sipped wine from the corner store. I needed to be slapped into a different state of understanding. I needed to truly understand the role I was playing in animal exploitation. Enter my sister, Monique. Monique and her partner Drew were living with us in London. They were both carnivorous without waiver and it wasn’t just on one occasion I walked into the shared kitchen to discover my sister wrist deep inside a chicken carcass. The relationship I had back then with my sister was tumultuous and she would try to catch me out on any perceived flaw, real or imagined. She got a good one to ride me on with my hypocrisy surrounding animals. The day Monique sneered at me and called me a hypocrite, for saying I loved animals while refusing to give up wine from the corner shop, plays back like it was yesterday. In a rare instance of calmness and clarity, I told my sister she was absolutely right. I could no longer drink non-vegan wine, eat dairy-containing food or buy clothing made with animal products. I went vegan that very second and have never stopped being vegan. When people ask me for advice on how to go and stay vegan, I often retell the story of my sister pushing me into a corner. That was my defining moment and I tell people theirs will arrive. It takes knowing the facts, knowing your part and feeling it is the right thing to do in your heart. Once the pieces fall into place and you have a clear understanding of your role in reducing animal suffering, choosing vegan becomes an epiphany. It’s the right thing to do and you do it. The clarity or the logic or the unavoidability of what you have come to understand puts you on a path of lifelong compassion and it’s a fabulous feeling.
So, that is the story of how I went vegan. But what was the vegan landscape in London like twenty years ago?
I really can’t recall any vegan restaurants, although there must have been a few. We certainly didn’t have the vegan networks and online social media groups to spread news of the best places to eat. It was all very much real life experience and word of mouth.
Going out for lunch meant a packet of pita bread and a tub of hummus from the Co-op. Seriously. Co-operative Supermarkets were about the only place that clearly labeled vegan products back in 1999.
When I decided I would not drink beer or wine anymore unless I was sure it was vegan, I often just went without. If vegan alcohol searching database Barnivore existed back then, I certainly didn’t know about it. Smart phones didn’t exist and I didn’t even own a cellphone!
There was not one mainstream restaurant that had vegan options. If you wanted to eat something in a High Street eatery, you would have to ask your server to speak to the kitchen and explain what vegan meant. It just wasn’t a process that many of us wanted to go through again and again (although many did as an act of activism).
I cooked at home for every single meal.
I can honestly say I used to be a better and more enthusiastic cook back in the day. We had tofu preparation down to a fine art and I didn’t even know what seitan was or how to make it for the first few years of my vegan adventure. Jackfruit? Nope. Didn’t know about it. My meat alternative most used? Chickpeas.
For special occasions we might break out a nut roast.
My memory is a bit hazy but I recall there only being one not-very-nice soya milk in Sainsbury’s that was sweetened with apple juice.
A few years into my veganism saw things getting slightly better.
Holland & Barrett near my house was the ONLY place to get Redwood (now known as VBites) vegan turkey and beef roasts. If you wanted one for the weekend, you had to familiarise yourself with their delivery times because these products were scarce and flew off the shelves.
I would sometimes run to the store in order to get in before the other local vegans.
There was no vegan cheese to speak of or at least none worth speaking of, that’s for sure.
An early memory involves me going along to the vegan festival in Red Lion Square. It was like another planet and it felt as though every single vegan in London was there. It was at one of these early events where I first tasted seitan. I was so confused!
Vegetarian Shoes was the only place to get kinder footwear and the styles were quite limited. It wouldn’t be unusual to show up to a vegan event and half the attendees were wearing the same boot style!
When it came to personal care products, Co-operative Supermarkets were the first ports of call due to their anti-testing stance and clear labelling.
I do remember it being tough to be vegan twenty years ago, but it was also a time of simple and clear choices. We were inventive, resourceful, and made do with what we had because we believed in reducing the demand for animal-derived food and products. Just the basics.
Even though I have dedicated my life ever since then to championing the vegan message, I would never have thought today’s vegan-friendly landscape was possible in my lifetime.
The excruciatingly-slow progress we made over those two decades has been completely swamped in just two years or so. Vegan stuff is absolutely everywhere in comparison to when I first made the switch. Heck, I even work on vegan cruises!
I hoped to see this sort of availability, but never believed I’d live to see it.
Honestly.
I’d love to hear your memories of what it was like when you took the vegan leap.
Something has been playing on my mind a bit lately.
Is the absolute onslaught of vegan food options such as KFC buckets and burgers done vegan or Impossible burgers actually reducing sales of dead animal products or is it just taking sales away from independent vegan businesses?
Are the customers of these huge chain restaurants and fast food franchises eating less meat or are meat-free people like us now also just flocking to these places where non-vegans also still eat?
Is anyone keeping track of this topic? Where’s the data?
Is bakery chain Greggs selling less meat products while also breaking records with vegan sausage rolls, or are they making all that extra money and still selling the same amount of meat? Or maybe they are selling more meat because vegans are coming into the stores for the first time and dragging friends, family members, and colleagues along for the ride.
Someone with more intellectual capacity and spare time than I have needs to look into what real advances we are making with the wave of vegan menu items swamping the UK and the planet. Are we making a change to the number of animals being killed for food or these businesses simply stealing our funds that would normally be directed to indie vegan business?
Without seeing hard date and sales figures to prove otherwise, I fear we might be paying the multinationals to feed us vegan food with no real improvements for animals.
Let’s discuss Pret A Manger. Do they sell less meat and dairy now that they are championed as a go-to place for vegan options, or do they still sell the same amount of animal products (or even more) and just rake in the vegan cash on top? Has the vegan boom lessened the demand for non-vegan ingredients in a real way for this company or is the plant-based business additional to what they already do and will continue to do?
It’s easy for us vegans to get lost in the excitement of what has been a plant-based food revolution. However, we should be asking these questions and shifting our strategies accordingly if needed. We don’t just need more vegan options. We also need these businesses to be selling less animals.
We are vegan activists, not just vegan consumers.
If these big companies are doing all this vegan stuff but not reducing their use of animals and our indie vegan places are closing because of them, we need to TAKE ACTION. Just because we can get a vegan pizza on every corner doesn’t mean our fight is over.
Veganism ain’t that.
We don’t want our money to be a garnish on top of the money spent on dead animals, we want it to be instead of.
I’m not sure who has the resources to carry out this type of research but I would certainly support such a campaign financially if one of the big action groups or charities wanted to take this on.
Yes, I know that mainstream vegan choices help people transition and helps raise the profile of veganism. But as activists I think we need to stay front and centre of this movement and make ourselves aware of the shifting landscape. If this explosion of vegan food turns out to be doing little to stop animal cruelty significantly, we might need to reassess our tactics.
Maybe our demands need to stop being ‘more vegan options, please’ but rather ‘for every vegan option you put on your menu, you need to take a non-vegan option away’.
Real change, not just taking our money and putting our independently-owned vegan shops and restaurants out of business.
Curated and hosted by vegan blogger, writer, and event planner Fat Gay Vegan (that’s me!), this Mekong cruise has been designed to be a relaxed, inclusive, and safe adventure for LGBT travellers as well as their friends and families.
As a gay person, I have often longed for an LGBT-friendly vegan vacation opportunity. I know what it is like to put a lot of effort into planning and paying for a holiday and I want to know that every part of my trip celebrates who I am. My partner and I want to feel safe and relaxed whether we are in our cabin, sharing cocktails in the bar, or dining together at night. Vegan Culinary Cruises helped me turn this dream into a reality for me and my LGBT community!
Even though our gorgeous Mekong adventure is focused on celebrating LGBT community members, the cruise is also welcoming to non-LGBT friends and family members. We have worked hard to create an experience in which everyone can celebrate our diverse communities.
Our luxury Mekong river cruise combines places rarely visited with opulent world heritage sites exploring the wonders and culture of Vietnam and Cambodia
With only 25 cabins, this luxury cruise is an exclusive adventure for only 50 guests. It is all inclusive and means the cruise, delicious vegan cuisine, open bar, tours and more!
Vegan Culinary Cruises Vietnam & Cambodia Mekong river cruise is one of the world’s most exotic and unforgettable journeys. Marvel at ancient temples, mist-covered mountains and colourful floating markets along the Mekong River as you travel by luxury river cruise through two of Southeast Asia’s most beautiful countries. Along the way, visit temples and monasteries, royal palaces and pagodas, rural villages and experience first-hand everyday life in this unique part of the world. This deluxe river cruise ship features delicious regionally-inspired vegan cuisine, spa treatments and a pool on the sun deck so our guests can return to luxury after each on shore adventure.
Our all-inclusive program includes delicious vegan cuisine, thought-provoking lectures, entertainment, and fabulous on-board programming, along with local tours at each locale we visit.
Picture yourself watching the river flow from the window of your cabin or one of the decks as it takes you to new places and reveals storybook landscapes as you relax in total comfort. The sublime ambiance and personal service aboard your Vegan Culinary Cruise ship creates an oasis of relaxation that is simply unexcelled. Each one of the bright, airy cabins has unrestricted views of the scenery through panoramic, glass windows with private balcony that spans the cabin’s width. Experience travel like you never have before with the sheer ease of river transport.
Details
Pricing from: US$5790 per person based on double occupancy Dates: July 4, 2020 until July 11, 2020
We are offering a US$500 per person discount if you book your cabin before September 1, 2019.
There is also an optional Siem Reap Cambodia pre-tour available at additional cost.
Pre-tour
Day 1 – Thursday July 2 – Siem Reap – Arrive transfer to hotel Day 2 – Friday July 3 – Siem Reap area tour Day 3 – Saturday July 4 – Siem Reap morning area tour, afternoon transfer to ship at Kampong Cham
Cruise
Day 1 – Saturday July 4 –Afternoon transfer Siem Reap to ship at Kampong Cham Day 2 – Sunday July 5 – Kampong Cham, Angkor Ban, Wat Hanchey – Cambodia Day 3 – Monday July 6 – Kampong Tralach, Kampong Chhnang – Cambodia Day 4 – Tuesday July 7 – Phnom Penh – Cambodia Day 5 – Wednesday July 8 – Tan-Chau, My An Hung – Border crossing Vietnam Day 6 – Thursday July 9 – Sa Dec, Binh Thanh Island – Vietnam Day 7 – Friday July 10 –- Cai Be, My Tho – Vietnam Day 8 – Saturday July 12: Ho Chi Min City / Saigon – Vietnam – Disembark
Get all the finer details of this incredible vegan, LGBT-friendly cruise along the Mekong online here.
You can also find out about future cruises like our south of France general vegan cruise next year. Follow Vegan Culinary Cruises on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
The following is an excerpt from my first book Fat Gay Vegan: Eat, Drink and Live Like You Give a Sh!t.
While I am sometimes marginalised and oppressed with regards to my sexuality and weight, I understand that I also live with extreme privilege because I am a white, cis- gendered and able-bodied man. It’s the white man part of me that gets a lot of people to listen to the fat and gay parts of me.
The modern world is designed to reward me for simply being me at the expense of people who are not me.
We need to know our own place in the world in order to be the most positive force we can be. So, with that in mind, let me start by exploring my understanding of my privilege for a short while before we move on to a plan of action. (Apologies. Plan of action is included in the book but not here)
I grew up in a poor family with a lot of abuse and sadness in a town where gay kids like me were routinely harassed by law enforcement and local homophobes, but I survived when many people around me didn’t.
Inequitable systems of oppression were in place to benefit me as a white man even while I was being targeted for my perceived sexuality. People around me who didn’t present as white men had safety and opportunity taken away or denied to them.
I left school at age fifteen and moved out of my family home. Even though I didn’t complete the most basic high school requirements, I was never out of employment from the moment I left the school gates for the final time.
Of course, a lot of that employment was dreadful and underpaid, but the point is that even as an uneducated young person I was employed for any position for which I applied and nobody can tell me my appearance wasn’t responsible. I was able to earn a desperately needed income for food and accommodation when a lot of people my age were discriminated against because of institutionalised racism embedded in Australian society.
An adult close to me sexually abused women in my family and these women have lived with the ongoing trauma of that abuse. As a young man, I was statistically less likely to be abused by this person and I wasn’t.
My teenage friends and I were searched by the police with alarming regularity during our often drunken nights wandering the streets of our hometown, however, indigenous Australian young people in the same predicament didn’t get off with just a warning or even with their lives in a lot of instances.
The worst thing to happen to my group of white friends was watching our cheap sparkling wine being poured down the storm water drain while the police laughed at us and ridiculed our clothing. We were not arrested, detained or physically assaulted thanks to our white skin and we were afforded privilege, consideration and relative physical safety during these acts of police surveillance. This was not the case for young people who didn’t look like us.
There is a story I think of quite often involving a young man in my hometown. He lived with a physical disability that resulted in him walking with a limp. I would smile at him as he passed by my workplace maybe once a week. We were the same age and we both recognised the other as a queer teenager in a sad town where our kind was not celebrated. We both started going to the same gay bar as teenagers where we mixed with a lot of older people.
One terrible night, my hometown comrade was targeted by an older man who took him to a dark alley behind the gay bar and brutally bashed him until he was no longer alive. I found myself in countless compromised situations as a young gay man but I didn’t find myself targeted for living with a disability. To understand how people with disabilities are more often targets of violence, search for statistics in your local area and be prepared to be upset by what you find.
Following on from decades of dead end jobs, I secured a place at university to follow up on my interest and desire to become a schoolteacher. The four-year undergraduate degree culminated with a multi-month practical placement in a real classroom. I was the only person out of my group of friends offered a job by the school at the end of the practical teaching placement. I was also the only one of said group who was identifiable as a white man and I’m comfortable in saying that I was nowhere close to being the most accomplished or hard-working student teacher amongst my cohort.
I’m not reflecting on these memories to get a pat on the back for being progressively aware, I’m telling you because it is crucial for those of us living with and benefitting from privilege to understand that the animal rights movement is not separate to everything I’ve described above.
I have discovered that if I want to be a worthy activist for animals I must also learn to resist and challenge oppression in multiple forms within vegan circles. Vegan businesses, vegan activist groups, vegan socials, and vegan online spaces all operate within the same systemic framework of oppression that favours me in the ways I described above. If I am being rewarded, someone is being oppressed. That is how it works.
If you would like to read the follow up to this section, you can order my book from independent bookstores as well as online via WH Smith, Foyles, and Amazon. The book is also available via Audible for listening.
Music and movies have been a huge part of my life, much as I imagine they have been for most people reading.
Some of my earliest memories revolve around music. Radio was a huge part of my childhood in Australia and I soaked up everything I heard. Rock radio at the time made me more than familiar with Australian bands such as Cold Chisel, INXS, Divinyls, and Midnight Oil.
Movies have always moved me emotionally and worked as an escape from reality. As a teenager, I was obsessed with the films of Winona Ryder and loved sitting in the dark with a jumbo popcorn as she perfectly portrayed the eternal angst-ridden teen on the big screen.
Later in my life television underwent a cultural reawakening and as an adult looking to reflect on my existence from a more critical position, shows such as Six Feet Under had me thinking of life, death, and the universe.
The popular (and sometimes not so popular) culture I’ve accessed throughout my life has helped me survive and build a sense of self.
This lifelong connection and nurturing I’ve received from performers is made extra special when someone I admire turns out to be vegan.
When a song or a piece of art speaks to me clearly and distinctly, it is an added bonus to know that the performer has a compassionate approach to life.
Let’s check out five of my favourite entertainers and why I adore them.
Most ‘vegan celebrity’ lists are just that. Lists. I wanted to give you some personal insight into how these people reached me over the years with their creative output.
I was 21 years old when the classic teen comedy Clueless was unleashed on the world and it instantly became a staple amongst my circle of friends. Unforgettable quotes from the film were fused into our speech patterns until we almost couldn’t separate our real life interactions from the screenplay.
The role of Cher in Clueless was enough to make me adore Silverstone forever, however I still enjoy watching her pop up across my screen now and again.
I thoroughly enjoyed her brief stint in the title role of the short-lived sitcom Miss Match. I also delighted when I saw Silverstone pop up for a four-episode arc on the dramedy Suburgatory, opposite her clueless co-star Jeremey Sisto, and in a supporting role in the 2018 film Book Club.
I was quite a young person when Woody Harrelson entered my consciousness.
Cheers was one of my favourite TV programs and Harrelson played the supposedly unintelligent yet loveable Woody Boyd. I didn’t have a happy home life and Cheers was one of my escapes, with Woody being a familiar and happy face for me.
Woody has ever since been a part of my pop culture landscape across many decades.
I cringed at yet loved his turn as a serial killer opposite Juliette Lewis in Natural Born Killers. I adored his starring role in Zombieland and am excited for the sequel coming soon. I even loved Woody in the Han Solo movie from 2018!
No Doubt have been one of the important musical forces in my life and co-founder, bassist, and songwriter Tony Kanal is one seriously cool dude.
I first met Kanal as a fan back in the 90s when No Doubt were in Australia on a promotional tour for their smash hit record Tragic Kingdom. I went on to see the band live numerous times around the globe including London, Brisbane, and Houston.
Tony later went on to form Dreamcar with Tom and Adrian from No Doubt, alongside Davey Havok of AFI fame, and released one of the most criminally-overlooked pop records of all time.
I recently got to say hello to Tony again in person this year as we were both attending the massive Eat Drink Vegan event in California. It was a warm moment and I cherished the chance to say g’day to one of my all time musical heroes.
Mayim Bialik as been an influence in my life for a very long time and now that she is set to open a vegan restaurant in downtown Los Angeles, I’m certain she will be on my radar for a few more decades at least.
Mayim first entered my life thanks to her title role is the 90s sitcom Blossom. I adored the show and her personality. Bialik also starred as the younger version of the Bette Midler character in the big screen tearjerker Beaches and this was a HUGE film in my younger years.
I’ve always enjoyed Mayim’s on screen comedy timing in The Big Bang Theory when I’ve seen snippets on TV but I’ve never really warmed to the show overall due to its sexist and racist undertones.
Daryl Hannah was such a huge movie star in the 80s. I watched so many of her film on VHS from the local Blockbuster including her turn as a mermaid in Splash with Tom Hanks.
I adored Hannah in Roxanne, Wall Street, and Steel Magnolias. These films were all on heavy rotation in my house.
Daryl Hannah has been one of the most active social justice and environmental activists when it comes to celebrities throwing their weight behind causes. She has even been arrested for putting her body on the line as a form of protest.
The following is a personal message I wrote to my Patreon supporters today to explain my recent absence from the site.
Patreon is a way for people to financially support the FGV platform and the work it does to champion independent vegan business, support human rights, and help improve outcomes for non-human animals.
If you would like to pledge a monthly amount to keep my blog and social media platforms alive, you can at my Patreon page.
Now for the letter…
Hello everyone.
This post is both an apology and an explanation.
I have been missing in action on Patreon for about half a year and I owe you an explanation.
The past six to eight months of my life have been some of the most difficult and I’ve only just come out the other side.
One of the biggest changes and challenges I faced was the end of my relationship with Josh. Actually, we are still best friends and we love and support each other unequivocally but the period of transformation where we changed our relationship to a friendship took a huge toll on me and my mental health.
I lived with extreme depression and found myself accessing weekly therapy here in Mexico City. My therapist was so very kind and helpful. I honestly don’t know what I would have done without the support.
Having been in such a co-dependent relationship for 20 years, I was just incapable of even the most mundane life tasks on my own. I lost track of how many times I would just lock myself in my room and cry. Minutes were hours and hours were days and days were weeks.
The whole emotional and mental struggle was one of the most gruelling fights of my life. I’m still living with depression daily but have a hold on it at the moment.
It was during this period when I also discovered that I was NOT living with a medical condition that it was thought I was living with for decades. This is an extremely convoluted story, very private, and almost unbelievable so expect to see me write more about it in the future. For now, all I can say is that the experience broke me down to nothing and I’ve been building myself back up from scratch.
It pushed me into a type of depression and mental breakdown that I had never believed would happen to me and it felt like I would never recover.
It was also tough to say goodbye to Hackney Downs Vegan Market and Vegan Beer Fest UK events during this time. Neither of these ventures were financially viable any longer but making the decision to end them all hit me hard.
They never made a lot of money but losing even that tiny amount of income triggered my anxiety and depression.
Having exited a 20 year relationship in which Josh and I cared for each other in all aspects including financial, I felt beyond vulnerable. I had no job security, no savings, and no future financial plans. I was scared and lonely. The thought of growing old with no money is not pleasant. I went from being 50% responsible for my rent, bills, and food expenses to 100% responsible and the change has been a big adjustment.
All I could manage was to keep my blog alive in order to help independent vegan businesses and manage the FGV section of the weekly Venn Street Market for a small amount of income and to support those traders. I also had my monthly Vegan Life Magazine column to write each month.
I physically and mentally couldn’t keep up with anything else, and sadly that meant Patreon postings.
I loved giving weekly news updates and sharing content on here, but when there were weeks I couldn’t get out of bed that meant that some things got lost.
I’m am forever grateful for the support you have all given me on here. It makes me emotional to know you have stayed by my side when you had no idea why I wasn’t sharing content.
The money from your pledges has kept my head above water during the darkest times of my life and you have been a huge part in keeping the FGV platform alive.
I still get a thrill out of helping promote independent vegan businesses and the blog and social media platforms do make a huge impact. It is your support that has allowed me to keep all of this alive during my breakdown.
And I’m still here.
I’m still blogging all the time. I’m still promoting my events and events run by others. I’m still answering reader questions every day.
I’m still FGV and I’m still fighting for human and non-human animals.
Going forward, I need to make some changes to how this Patreon platform rewards you for your support. I’d love to know what you would like to see in return for your pledge. Feel free to respond here or send me a private message.
My idea is to keep the blog and the market running (your support helps with this) but also start sharing more personal writing on here. This would include vegan and non-vegan specific topics.
I never went away but I’m back here in a big way… and I couldn’t have done it without you.
I have exciting plans for the future and it would mean a lot to me for you to be by my side. A second and third book are being planned, while next year sees me taking on a huge adventure by curating a vegan cruise for LGBT people and their friends/family.
I am helping launch vegan events in Mexico City and have just curated an FGV food section for the Mighty Hoopla and Cross The Tracks festivals in London. It is still full steam ahead!
I have a new boyfriend in my life who has been the most wonderful support I could have hoped for. Gil is kind and loving and handsome. He has come into my life at the perfect time and means the world to me. My friends have also stayed in touch to make sure I was still surviving and I’ll never forget their love and support.
I know it is all a lot to take in so I’ll leave it there and hope to hear from you all soon.
I reported a few days ago that I’ve curated a vegan food area for two MASSIVE London music festivals next month.
You can eat your fill AND dance your cares away at the pop extravaganza that is Mighty Hoopla on Saturday June 8 and the jazz, funk, and soul explosion Cross The Tracks on Sunday June 9, 2019.
The vegan food line up is SENSATIONAL and you can read all about it online here. You can party along to some of the best music on the planet and never run out of vegan food choices.
It sounds like heaven and we have some of the finest food makers in the biz.
To celebrate my love of pop music and the inclusion of the FGV section at both events, I’ve curated a special Spotify playlist featuring my favourite songs by artists on the Mighty Hoopla line up.
You all know I’m a complete pop fanatic, right?
Have fun listening and be sure to grab your tickets before they sell out!
