Disabled vegans Images Interviews

Spoiled Socks – ‘unheard vegans’ – interview with Trae

“Spoiled socks” is running a project called “unheard vegans”: interviews with vegans who are in situations that affect their ability to be vegan either just a little, or a lot, and turen the interview into a series of comics.
So this can apply to vegans who are poor, disabled, have a mental or physical illness, live in a food desert, homelessness, live with parents that control the food you eat, etc.. pretty much any situation that can make your life difficult as a vegan.

This was an interview published in March 2021 by Spoiled Socks – reprinted here with permission.

If you would like to participate in their project, fill out this google form.

Interview with Trae – Spoiled Socks (10 comics).

[alt txt inc]

Comic with orange/yellow background. Person in black/white. Text balloons. 
- Thanks for participating in this interview! Would you like to introduce yourself? 
- Hello, my name is Trae (She/they). I am a 42 year old, queer, autistic, cognitievly disabled, chronic pain sufferer. I live below poverty level.
Comic with orange/yellow background. Person in black/white. Text balloons. 
- What does veganism mean to you? 
- I am vegan for the planet, but especially for animals. Going vegan also lead me to a whole world of intersectional activism and I aim to exclude no one. 
- I stand against all forms of oppressions.
Comic with orange/yellow background. Person in black/white. Text balloons. 
- How does your autism, disability and class affect our (sic) capacity to be vegan?
- My community is not vegan- friendly, but there are some meatless options in the freezer section. 
- I am low income, so I gravitate toward budget friendly pasta, rice beans, tortillas, bread and vegetables. The meatless options are budget friendly for me also because I live alone and a bag of Gardein can feed me for several days/meals under $4.
Comic with orange/yellow background. Person in black/white. Text balloons. 
- I have sensory processing disorder, and certain vegan foods can be a sensory issue for me, like tofu and okra, but I still like to try new things and experiment with recipes. 
- vital wheat gluten in the picuture
Comic with orange/yellow background. Person in black/white. Text balloons. 
- Veganism also really helped me. It made me feel better physically and spiritually. But sometimes, it can be hard emotionally: going vegan has only amplified my empathy and I feel everything very intensely. It can be very painful and isolating.
Comic with orange/yellow background. Person in black/white. Text balloons. 
- What would be something that would make your life a bit easier as a vegan? 
- I only wish non-vegans could be more supportive
- When I first went vegan, I couldn't understand how non-vegans could so seamlessly fgo from "I love Animals" to "I hate vegans". I have gotten used to it after all these years, but at first it was really shocking and confusing.
Comic with orange/yellow background. Person in black/white. Text balloons. 
- Have people ever made you feel that as an autistic person/poor person/mentally ill person you don't "deserve" to be vegan? 
- One day, some elitist vegans told me that I should only eat organic, whole food because, "junk food vegans make us all look bad". 
- Like, first off, just because I'm poor does not mean I eat junk lol. I love cookies and fries and pizza, but I also love steamed vegetables and raw food.
Comic with orange/yellow background. Person in black/white. Text balloons. 
- Organic, whole foods are not easily accessible to me year round. I also do not care about keeping up the classist, unrealistic appearances of the elite. I eat wjhet I like and what suits my budget.
Comic with orange/yellow background. Person in black/white. Text balloons. 
- How could the vegan community better accomodate your situation? 
- My experience with the vegan community these last 8 years have been rocky. It is a greatly divided community due to a white supremacy and other highly problematic issues, but my beautiful intersectional vegan community consists of some of the most wondrful people I've evr known from all over the world and we all support and accomodate each other as much as possible.
Comic with orange/yellow background. Person in black/white. Text balloons. 
- I'm more concerned about marginalized, new vegans unknowingly entering into the toxic and more mainstream areas of the vegan community and not seeing themselves represented or valued.

Spoiled Socks Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spoiledsocks/

Spoiled Socks Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/spoiledsocks

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