Not in My Name, Anonymous

Recently on the internet I saw celebration over the activities of a cyber-hacking group known only as “Anonymous”, who had taken down Monsanto’s website briefly and replaced it with a pirate flag.  They also stole personal information of some Monsanto employees including their home addresses, seemingly taking a page out of the book of animal rights extremists like those who targed Huntingdon Life Sciences employees for their involvement with a company that tests on animals.  I’m assuming these addresses were not taken with the intent to write polite letters to the employees explaining why the company they work for is bad news for society, bad news for the environment.  The taking of names of those on the Monsanto payroll is to be seen as an implied threat.  Anonymous has proudly declared that they “fight for farmers” against the New World Order Scum.

Not this farmer.

Not in my name.

As an animal activist, I’ve spent years thinking about this sort of activity, which was practically idolized some years ago in the animal advocacy movement (and thankfully, I think we’ve moved away from it a little these days).  It is held up as ‘direct action’ and ‘civil disobedience’ which scores ‘wins’ for the movement.  It appeals to the frustrations of those who have been fighting thanklessly against corporate abuses and the ransacking of the natural world; it’s a way of ‘striking back’ at the enemy.  Bullhorns have been used at the homes of employees, bombs left on doorsteps – on the wrong doorsteps, giving government authorities fuel to crack down on protesters, all protesters, whether they are acting violently or not.

But there is no one enemy.  Monsanto is a company made up of people, whose actions are supported by goverments made up of people, and permitted to act in a society made up of people.  There is no one enemy, there is no mindless “evil corporation” to do battle with.  The battle is with public opinion, which generally in North America has allowed transgenic experimentation with our food sources to continue as it will.

Yet in these last years, the tide is slowly turning, based on the experience of the very farmers who have been sold transgenic technology.  Farmers are finding that weeds are becoming resistant to Round-Up, and that the ‘simple fix’ of applying the herbicide is no longer effective.  They are scrambling to save their fields and their profits.  At the same time, proof is coming in that Colony Collapse Disorder, a mysterious disappearence en masse of the bees we depend on to pollinate a huge number of our food crops, is most likely caused by pesticides and the pollen from genetically-modified corn.  Farmers are having to completely re-think their approach to pest management, realizing that anything which kills ‘pest’ insects is also liable to kill ‘beneficial’ insects, causing worse problems than when both kinds of insects were around to balance each other.

And even though the public is largely in support of labeling for genetically modified products, we’re finding that almost all canola has been contaminated with transgenic material – even organic canola seed.  The public is worried about their loss of control over the production and regulation of the food which sustains us, and starting to wake up.

It’s a climate of disappointment – as the promises put forward by proponents of genetic modification for higher yield and other ‘miracle’ properties of laboratory-altered crops fail to take shape, as farmers in India continue to commit suicide over their debts to the seed and pesticide companies, and pesticide-resistant herbs set American agriculture back by decades.

So why the hell would so-called ‘activists’ choose this moment to act out, swinging attention away from the real problems caused by GMO technology and on to the bad behaviour of a few little cyber-brats?  Why give Monsanto fodder to call those against them ‘eco-terrorists’?  Why call this a ‘victory’ when nothing at all has been achieved?

… when the actions of a demonstrator divert public attention from the movement’s message, or turn a corporate plunderer into a public victim, or otherwise resemble acts conceived by someone attempting to discredit the movement, then that demonstrator’s tactic is probably a bad one.

-Lee Hall, Capers in the Churchyard: Animal Rights Advocacy in the Age of Terror, p. 67

Don’t take a page from our book.  Animal activists have tried this shit before, and seen how it turned out badly.  Personal attacks agaisnt employees of ‘evil corporations’ have no place in a movement which seeks a world of justice and peace for all beings.  Violence in the name of peace is more than hypocritical.  It’s counterproductive.  And it fails to acknowledge the interconnection of all things, and the complicity that we all hold, being part of a society that has helped thrust GMO crop technologies on underdeveloped nations, being governed by a government whose representatives are or have been in the payroll of the pesticide and gmo industries they are supposed to regulate.

Personal responsibility and reasoned discussion is less glamorous, and more arduous, and more long-term.  But it’s the only thing that will move us forward.  This little cyber-stunt is beneath us.  Grow up and learn to talk to people.  Get your grandparents, your teachers, your mayor to understand the problems of genetically modified foods.  Get them behind the fight for safe food, for environmental protection, for small-scale organic local farming.  Now that’s revolutionary.

Earth Balance, palm oil, rainforests and RAN

Reblogged from Invisible Voices:

In November of 2006, Eric wrote a post about the Orangutans in Malaysia, and the associated palm oil issues. There are some first hand accounts linked in that post of his, and they’re heart-wrenching. I realized in horror that my beloved Earth Balance uses palm oil. I wrote them asking about the palm oil that they use, and this was their response: 100% of the palm oil used in Earth Balance originates in peninsular Malaysia and not Eastern Malaysia (i.e. Sarawak and Sabah on the Island of Borneo), the main …

It’s not a country/city thing

Just a note to point out that animal rights and veganism aren’t the territory of alienated city folk who ‘don’t know what farming is about’ or ‘don’t understand the realities of nature.’  These accusations are frequently slung at those who make a stand for animals, as one can see, for example, in the comments following this article.  The author protests the needless killing of urban deer in British Columbia, pleading for homeowners to install deer-proof landscaping (as it is the ‘edge’ habitat created by suburban development which causes an explosion in deer populations in the first place), and to not accept the killing, which will only cause the deer to increase their reproductive rate in compensation.

Over and over, we are told that we are dreamy-eyed bleeding hearts, and that life is not a fuzzy feel-good place but a desperate game of kill or be killed – which therefore gives us (magically) the right to dispose of urban deer and anyone else we deem inconvenient to our lifestyles.  Those who attempt to stand up for urban deer in particular are accused of being misanthropic due to the number of automobile collisions that cause significant damage or loss of human life.  It’s very convenient to blame the deer, when perhaps the problem is overuse of automobiles at high speeds, and building roadways which bisect deer habitat.  It also is a skip in logic to suggest that killing particular individuals will prevent other individuals from wandering onto the roadway; in addition, hunting encourages population growth by reducing competition for resources by the remaining animals.

Another frequently-repeated line is that deer carry ticks which can infect humans with Lyme disease, a usually “mild illness” which, if undiagnosed, may lead to problems with the heart, joints, or nervous system in some individuals.  However, blaming deer for Lyme disease is just scapegoating them:

Research has shown that white-tailed deer are important to the reproductive success of the black-legged tick. In the absence of deer, this tick will opportunistically feed on other medium sized mammals and humans. As a management tool for Lyme Disease, there is still debate in the scientific community as to whether reducing the number of deer present in an area will effectively or dramatically reduce Lyme Disease “risk”.

-Michigan Department of Natural Resources

According to the University of Rhode Island, “[t]he white-footed mouse is the primary carrier/source of the Lyme disease bacterium” which the tick picks up when it feeds on them and then passes on to larger animals as it goes through its two-year life cycle.  Though I’m against killing animals of any type, it strikes me as hilarious to imagine those hunters who put on noble airs that they are reducing human risk of Lyme disease putting down their cross-bows and rifles to stalk the forest armed instead with mouse traps and tiny pieces of cheese.  But that’s a little less exciting and ego-boosting, now isn’t it?

But to get back to my point, it’s not true that vegans and animal rights people are all wishy-washy intellectuals who haunt cafes and universities in big cities remote from what people like to think of as “nature” “out there” (despite the large populations of urban fauna and the interconnectedness of all things which belies that there is any nature ‘out there’ separate from the human habitat which we have created).  It seems to me that the only reason that more vegans and animal rights people have visibility in cities is exactly the same reason that gay communities are more visible in the cities – with a higher population concentration, there’s a higher percentage of minorities.  And with the number of vegans with whom I connect on the Internet, a large proportion identify as ‘rural’ or ‘isolated’ (which is perhaps why they turn to the internet, in order to feel a sense of community and support).

In fact, the word ‘vegan’ and its ethical definition were founded in 1944, before computers, before factory farms, before urbanization led the majority of the world’s population to live in cities.  It was founded by people who lived on family farms, who lived the hard reality of rural life, and who still decided that another way was not only possible but necessary.  It is deeply insulting and dismissive for people to sling accusations of disconnection from ‘reality’ against those who argue for the dignity and freedom of animals.  Donald Watson, one of the chief founders of the vegan movement, frequently visited his uncle’s farm, and it was the slaughter of one of the friendly pigs which caused him to think “that farms – and uncles – had to be reassessed: the idyllic scene was nothing more than Death Row, where every creature’s days were numbered by the point at which it was no longer of service to human beings.”

In addition, it seems quite often that those who administer this insult are themselves city-slickers.  It’s quite satisfying when this sort of rebuttal comes along: “I Grew Up on a Farm, and I am Vegan”.  Just searching the internet for “vegan grew up on a farm” draws lots of results, because it’s a strong confutation of the stereotype we get handed.

Though I grew up in the suburbs, I would be tempted to say that I grew up on an ‘urban farm.’  The houses were built on top of a beautiful old orchard (!), and many of the trees remained standing.  Just in our yard, there was peach, pear, plum, cherry, bird cherry; the darkest, crispest apples I’ve ever tasted, and a venerable green grape vine that overtook most of the western wall of the house.  My mother grew large amounts of vegetables on leaf-mulched plots, which I was responsible for helping weed on a regular basis since I was very young.  I helped prune trees, haul branches, rake leaves, spread compost, trim strawberry runners.  I worked very hard and not for pay.  I did more garden and yard work than anyone else I knew in my school.  This hard work has served me well all my life, teaching me a work ethic and sense of responsibility uncommon to a lot of city folks I know – or even the country folks I’ve met since moving to a rural environment.

It’s really very silly to accuse vegans and animal rights people of avoiding reality or dwelling in dreamland.  Most of us take a harder look at issues of death, morality, ecology, and ‘reality’ than the average person and take pains to educate ourselves about a multitude of issues.  The thing is, we see reality as it is, but we ask and strive for something better.  We see the potential in human nature to not just accept things ‘the way things are’, but to make positive changes.

We ask that we each give up some of our human privilege in the name of a greater justice.  This is very challenging, but it shouldn’t be seen as unrealistic.  Human ingenuity has already sent us to the moon; we are not fools to think that we can do better in our relations with other animals and our treatment of the planet.  All we need is the will, collectively, to do so.

My art is in an Online Gallery!

Please visit my page:

http://rencar.ca/wordpress/artistes/j-muir-peintre-figuratif-contemporain/

This Virtual Gallery is run by Caroline McCarthy in the nearby town of Victoriaville and had already won an Entrepreneurship award within the first month of its creation.  I think the really cool thing about it is not only can paintings be bought through the website, they can also be rented, typically by local businesses.  A really good way to get exposure!

Art has been my pastime and my passion since I was 2 years old.  Now, finally, I’m starting to align myself with my passion and trying to make a name for myself as an artist.

Of particular relevance to this blog is the fact that I’ve started working on specifically animal-rights themed artworks.  I’ll explain more about that soon, as I develop the concept.

Blogging successes in 2011

A note of appreciation for all the people I’ve connected with over the last year through my blog and through other online venues, like Twitter.  Had some really interesting comments on my blog from cool bloggers, and found some great new blogs that way.

Interesting folks to look up:

Neil Chung – Visual Artist

evervescence- Adventures in living a balanced, self-sufficient, eco-friendly, healthy, kind, compassionate and happy life!

CyberWhaleWarrior.com

The Freak Girl Chronicles

VitalVeda – Wisdom of Life and Beyond

Fresh Spinach – The Journey of a New Vegan

anthony’s garden – a site all about gardening and the natural world

priajelita – just another ordinary beautiful guy

Clare Flourish – Kiss the joy as it flies

Black and other colours of the rainbow – A socially anxious black lesbian in Montreal

http://www.vegane-beratung.com/

VegPress.org – A voice for compassion

A Soy Bean – thoughts from a vegan bean

JAM Vegan Bakery

Sweet Earth Chocolates – Organic & Fair Trade

Ecology Without Nature

Naked Vegan Cooking – body-positive vegan goodness

(There are many more awesome people I’ve ‘met’ this year, but this list is already getting long … sorry to those I’ve missed!  Next time!)

My blog has gotten more than 1000 page views every month except August, September, October and December, most of that due to neglect while I was setting up an art show in the summer.

And as of today, there are 53 people interested enough in what I have to say to have signed up to receive e-mails for every post I make; that’s quite a compliment!

So, thank you very much for reading, and for finding my stuff interesting enough to stick around.  As always, I welcome any feedback, links, ideas for articles, and chances to interview activists, authors, artists and other animal rights and social justice people!

Success, joy, and health to all in 2012.  According to conspiracy theorists, it’s the end of the world; or, more hopefully, a global shift in human consciousness said to welcome an era of harmonious transformation.  ‘Bout time.

we’re not fancy vegans

For those unfamiliar with veganism, who may wonder “Without the meat, what’s left to eat?”, a vegan diet may sound esoteric, expensive, and unappealing.

Not true, not true, not true.

Though still within the top 11% of the world’s wealthiest people – with a good roof over our heads and three meals a day – my partner and I have less money than most people I know.  We survive on a single income, and while I won’t go into details, let’s just say that I get thousands of dollars back on my income tax returns every year.  Though Canada doesn’t have an official ‘poverty line,’ I’d assume we’re just a bit below it!

And yet, not only are we surviving on a vegan diet, we make food delicious enough to sway even the most hardline meat-and-potatoes kind of folk.  The key?  A well-stocked spice cabinet.

We buy as many kinds of herbs, spices, sauces, vinegars, mustards and oils as we can afford.  Right now for vinegar I have red wine, apple cider, balsamic, and white balsamic; I mix and match for delicious salad dressings, and also to use in baked goods. ^[1] For sauces, right now we have Jamaican Jerk, Thai Chili Garlic, vegan Worcestershire, Hickory Liquid Smoke, Roasted Garlic puree, Chipotle Tabasco, Bragg’s, soy sauce, liquid vegetable bouillon (Bovril), red and green Thai chili paste, B-B-Q sauce, olive paste, tomato paste…

Then there’s the herbs and spices.  Home-grown dried basil, oregano, coriander and thyme (even in Zone 4a), Mexican Chili powder, cumin, paprika, dill, peppercorns, cayenne, turmeric, Steak Spice… And when we had a lovely vegan friend come visit us from Alberta, we brought them to Montreal, and there in the Marche Jean-Talon we found an amazing spice vendor, owned people who search all over the world for the best quality, most natural (though not certified organic), and most aromatic spices.  We bought Tandoori Masala, Hungarian Paprika, Kampot black peppercorns, and a Sri Lankan red curry mix that we have to crush in a mortar and pestle.  Our indulgence of the year!

Aside from the spice merchants, all our herbs and spices cost only a few dollars each.  And the sauces are not very expensive either, with the most costly one being the vegan Worcestersire sauce at about $7.  And since one only uses a small amount of each sauce in a given recipe, they last a long time.  The point is, they’re economical for what they give.

This home-grown basil was cooked into all sorts of deliciousness...

Because, with an array of spices and sauces this large, we can make pasta three nights a week and never have it taste the same; we buy very ordinary ingredients that every non-vegan would be familiar with: vegetables, pasta, rice, beans, flour as well as a few specialized items like tofu, quinoa, millet, and canned full-fat coconut milk, all still available at the local grocery store without going to a specialty market or health-food store.

We make wonderful food: stir-fry, coconut Thai curry, lasagne, shepherd’s pie, stuffed phylo pastry, ratatouille, Canadian-style Mexican burritos, spaghetti with home-made tomato sauce, pizza with home-made crusts, black bean burgers, chow mein… and then there’s the desserts.  Sugar pie, apple pie, chocolate cake, pumpkin lime ginger ‘cheese’cake, banana bread, pouding chomeur, snickerdoodle cookies…

All of this is on a limited budget.  All of it is delicious, aromatic, and filling – the last being especially important when we’ve noticed that sometimes vegan food made by others or served at restaurants can leave us hungry an hour after eating.  The key seems to be to have a good amount of hearty ingredients, like potatoes, black beans, tofu, well-cooked lentils (if you make them from dry lentils, rinse and simmer until very soft – 45 minutes or more; if from a can, cook them another 10-15 minutes to avoid any indigestion problems), or, in the case of Shepherd’s Pie or lasagne, a ‘meat’ layer made with chopped onions, smashed black beans, mushrooms, walnuts, liquid smoke and spices, all sauteed together.

Props to my partner, who, though not vegan, makes 90% of the vegan meals we eat, and is chief engineer of delicious innovations and spice usage.  Meanwhile, I take the credit for 90% of the desserts, and 100% of the home-baked bread – another budget-saving exercise which can be done with little effort from no-knead recipes like this one (I use white flour instead of whole wheat, and bake the two loaves as big round cottage loaves directly on one pan instead of one-by-one in a cast-iron pot).  I’ve also made delightful home-made foccacia, French baguettes (you heard me!), and next stop … vegan bagels!

I’ve been planning this exclusively food-related post for a few days now, and today was delighted to find this blog post discussing the relevance of food activism to the advancement of animal rights.  Though political activism and opposition to what’s wrong in the world is necessary and vital, it isn’t right to put down ‘vegan potlucks and baketivism’ as fluffy and unimportant.  Sharing vegan food and building community and cooperation is part of making our vision of a better world into reality; I can’t imagine anything more concrete or important than that.

——————–

^{1. In quick-rise baked goods, like cakes and muffins, the addition of a little vinegar can help the rising action caused by baking soda and baking powder. That’s why buttermilk is sometimes called for in recipes; to substitute for it, ‘sour’ some soymilk by adding 1 teaspoon (5 ml.) to one cup (250 ml.) of soy or other vegan milk. Of note is the “wacky” cake, a really lovely, simple, cheap chocolate cake devised in World War II-era America, when there was a shortage of eggs and milk. The cake is ‘wacky’ because it needs neither eggs nor milk, instead using water and vinegar and a minimal amount of cocoa powder to still make an impressively moist, rich cake. BACK TO POST}

Related articles

• The Complete Guide to Vegan Food Subs – Review and Giveaway (healthyslowcooking.com)
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• My Cookbook of the Year: Hearty Vegan Meals for Monster Appetites (seitanismymotor.com)

animal agriculture and hunger

An important article:

Animal Husbandry & the Horn of Africa Famine – showing the devastating effect of livestock on the landscape, on water supplies, and on the people who continue to see cattle as their ‘wealth’ even though they eat barely more meat than the largely-vegetarian populations of Sri Lanka and India.

…continued reliance on animal agriculture [has] plunged the region into both ecological and economic debt.

The most ominous aspect of the Horn of Africa crisis is that without a hard turn away from animal agriculture,  climatic change suggests that the intensifying drought cycle will spread to almost the whole of Africa,  hitting most severely the other nations,  north and south,  where the most people engage in animal husbandry.

….

UNEP and the IWMI noted that historically “grazing animals capture the benefits of sparsely distributed rainfall by grazing on rainfed pastures” over large areas,  but this was before the runaway human population growth that began in the 20th century.

“In recent decades,”  the UNEP/IWMI joint report continued,  “the expansion of cultivation along with the establishment of international boundaries and barriers across traditional migratory routes have diminished herd mobility and forced herders to adopt more sedentary livelihood strategies.  The result has been an increase in severe land and water degradation and aggravated poverty,  poor health and food insecurity.  Unintentional trade-offs associated with livestock production include impacts on water scarcity,  nutrient cycling,  climate change and land degradation.”

Animal husbandry & the Horn of Africa famine

On a related note, here’s an international aid organization, Feed More International, which offers “animal-free hunger relief projects” as a response to Heifer International’s “gift-pig” initiative.  We don’t need to feed meat to poor people, it’s often culturally insensitive to do so, and it’s an ironic choice considering that animal agriculture for export to Western nations is often the source of many regions’ poverty – as noted above.

Further to that, the Times of India just ran a piece called “Become a vegan”, listing seven very cogent reasons for the largely-vegetarian population of India to resist the westernization of their diet.

All of today’s links courtesy of the Earthsave Canada e-mail newsletter.  Sign up today!

If you celebrate Christmas, consider sending a donation in someone’s name to Feed More International (and if your budget is $0, you can e-mail to have A Well-Fed World donate $10 in your behalf and mail a gift card to the person you dedicate the donation to).  Other worthy choices for dedicating donations in someone’s name include Friends of Animals, a vegan animal-rights organization which funds a primate sanctuary and marine animal rescue, and, well, I’m sure there’s lots of other good organizations to donate to but I don’t have the time to look them all up at the moment.

If you like crafty things and do have a $ budget, check out Madrigal Embroidery on Etsy (a dear friend of mine), or the Vegan Etsy Team.  Or order from Paradise City Herbal, vegan bodycare made with herbs grown on a vegan-organic “microfarm” in Massachusetts, or from Gone Pie Vegan Bakery, which can deliver custom and allergy-free orders of sweet gluten-free desserts (but their deadline for Christmas ordering may be passed, I’m not sure).  If I’ve forgotten anyone, sorry – just trying to give some shout-outs to some of the sweet vegans and their cruelty-free businesses that I’ve gotten to know lately.

Chia does the trick (and other egg replacement fun)

Just a quick post to note how useful I’ve found Chia seeds in my vegan baking.  The same Chia that was packaged in the 1980′s as a novelty – the Chia Pet – is now being re-packaged for health food enthusiasts always eager for the next new ‘superfood.’  Cultivated by the Aztec and Mayan people, chia is gluten free, high in calcium, magnesium and iron, and has a high concentration of Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids in the proportion most useful to vegans (that is, vegans tend to get an abundance of Omega 6 in the food they consume, but less Omega 3; chia is higher in Omega 3 than Omega 6).  But as a vegan, I appreciate Chia seeds for one particular property: their very active gelling property which makes them an ideal egg replacer for all kinds of recipes.

I’ve experimented with many egg replacements, while there’s others – like psyllium husk or carageen – that I haven’t yet tried.  Banana can be a good egg replacement in some recipes, as it does ‘gel’ nicely when baked; but too much banana in baked goods like cakes or muffins reduces their rise in the oven and makes their cooking time much longer, in my experience.  I think banana’s best assets come out when blended with other ingredients to make creamy pies – I’ve even made a banana-pumpkin pie for someone who was allergic to soy products (as I normally use tofu in the recipe).

Tofu can be used in combination with other ingredients as an egg replacer, and is the ideal egg replacer for making scrambled eggs when spices and sauces are added during the cooking.  Recipes for tofu scrambled eggs abound, many of them integrating Bragg’s, nutritional yeast and herbs to give a very satisfying approximation of scrambled eggs – without so much heavy fattiness.  However, in some baked goods tofu doesn’t have the amount of cohesion that I need, and I don’t like to break out a whole package of tofu just to use a little corner for an egg replacement.

Flax seeds, either ground-up or whole, and soaked in water (at a ratio of 1 tablespoon flax to 3 tablespoons water for each egg being replaced) for at least 10 minutes before starting a recipe, can be a good eggy substance which holds together well.  They are full of Omega-3′s and antioxidants like chia.  However, they impart a nutty taste which can be overpowering in some recipes, their hard shells can stick in one’s teeth, and they can make baked goods dry – as I learned from professional vegan baker Barbara Sitomer.

I also tried a “Veggie Round” recipe from the Care2 website, foolishly, because the person had veganized a recipe by substituting four real eggs with four flax eggs.  The “burger” that it created was gummy, gooey, un-cookable, and inedibly flax-y.  I should have known from reading the ingredients that it wouldn’t work.  Shame on folks for posting ‘vegan’ recipes on the internet without testing them at least twice; they give vegan food a bad name.

I’ve messed around with other stuff too like arrowroot, and the pre-packaged ‘egg replacement powder’ which is a mix of plant starches.  I don’t have any grocery stores close by that stock the pre-made product, and while it could be useful I don’t love that it doesn’t have any nutritional value.  I’ve made my own starch-based egg replacer, and it worked adequately, but didn’t ‘wow’ me.

Chia, however, seems very versatile, almost flavourless, and very cohesive – as well as having some nice nutritional bonuses that put it in strong competition with ‘real’ eggs.  Made the same way as flax ‘eggs’ by mixing 1 teaspoon chia to 3 Tablespoons of water and letting sit for at least 10 minutes, or with this overnight method that’s even more economical, chia seems suitable for baking sweets and for savoury dishes too.  Tonight I’m making a Black Bean Burger recipe that I’ve already tried and loved – substituting 1 tablespoon of chia soaked in 3 tablespoons of water for the 1 egg called for in the recipe.

The initial cost of a bag of chia seeds seems kind of expensive.  But the bag lasts so long that I think it works out to be quite economical.

Make Your Own Energy Gel (With Chia Seeds!)

Raw Vegan Lemon Almond Chia-zz Cake Recipe

separation of gay and lesbian community: where do the gender-variants go?

I’m experiencing something new to me, coming from a community in British Columbia that was very advanced in terms of gay and gender politics: the gay and lesbian communities in this rural area of Quebec are, it seems, completely separated.  There are groups for LESBIANS and groups for GAY MEN, and never the twain shall meet.  To me, this is problematic for a number of reasons.

In effect, it seems that these groups exist solely for social purposes: lesbians and gay men seperately getting together for potlucks, “gay” nights at the local bar, and outings.  There is no political commitment to make anything better for gays in the community, and no organization for the gay community as a whole.  I must note however that the ‘gay’ group in this area (Victoriaville) is much more inclusive: while its active participants are largely male, it is inclusive of all genders and all orientations – including gay-friendly heterosexual people.  I find this more welcoming, and indeed, the people there were much more open to talking about politics and about problems specific to gay people than what I’ve found so far in the lesbian gatherings I’ve been to.

This brings me to another problem, one which is much more personal: if there are groups for lesbians, and groups for gays, then where do the transsexual, transgendered, and intersex people go?  Not everyone in these categories identifies as, or is accepted by, lesbian or gay categories; yet there are probably too few people in the region to form yet another separatist group made up just of transsexual, transgendered and intersex people.  Many would feel too shy to show up at a gathering which is specific to “bisexual and homosexual women”, and would wonder if they would be included.  I don’t know if I’m included or accepted yet, since the gatherings I’ve been to so far have been rather superficial; I don’t know how members react to transgendered identities.  As a bisexual I’m already a little uneasy, as bisexuality is often regarded with suspicion even within the gay (and especially the lesbian) community.

But mainly, I don’t like the divisiveness and lack of cohesion.  What’s worse, when I tried to alert the local lesbian organization that the local ‘gay’ group is for all people and genders, the person I was talking with reacted with a little hostility: “Well were there any women there when you went?”  Well no, but it doesn’t help if the website of the lesbian organization lists the other group as being “For our male counterparts”.

I find this a very confusing situation, both personally as an androgynous person who doesn’t fit perfectly in the ‘lesbian’ or ‘gay’ categories, and also politically in the fact that our community isn’t getting together and looking out for all its members.  I will continue to look for community and outreach; perhaps there are other organizations inclusive of everybody that I haven’t yet found out about in the region.

naked people plus food: what’s not to love?

I just wanted to mention this gorgeous blog, Naked Vegan Cooking, because it makes me so happy.

“Body-positive vegan goodness” is how they describe themselves.  Sweet, good-hearted people promoting kind foods and shamelessness.  Makes me SO happy.

I love you, naked vegan people!

Enjoy:

Roasted Balsamic Brussels Sprouts and Apples – a good recipe for upcoming Christmas-type celebrations

Carrot Cake Cupcakes – I’ve been meaning to try a vegan carrot cake recipe sometime soon.  Why not cupcakes?

Cabbage Leaves stuffed with Sweet Potato Orgasm – who wouldn’t want a Sweet Potato Orgasm?