Don’t mock my lentils: vegans to get discrimination rights Options

[Gertie Keddle]

March 7, 2010
Don’t mock my lentils: vegans to get discrimination rights
Marie Woolf, Whitehall Editor
Times UK
Excerpt:

VEGANS and teetotallers are to be given the same protection against discrimination as religious groups, under legislation championed by Harriet Harman, the equalities minister.

Members of cults and “new religions” such as Scientology, whose supporters include the film stars Tom Cruise and John Travolta, would also be offered protection, as would atheists.

A code of practice explaining the legal implications of the equality bill states that religions need not be mainstream or well known for their adherents to gain protection. “A belief need not include faith or worship of a god or gods, but must affect how a person lives their life or perceives the world.”

The code, drawn up by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, singles out vegans, who do not eat any animal products or wear leather, as meriting protection from religious discrimination. It says: “A person who is a vegan chooses not to use or consume animal products of any kind. That person eschews the exploitation of animals for food, clothing, accessories or any other purpose and does so out of an ethical commitment to animal welfare.”

A spokesman from the commission explained: “This is about someone for whom being vegan or vegetarian is central to who they are. This is not something ‘thought up by the commission’. Parliament makes the law, the courts interpret it and the commission offers factual and proportionate guidance to organisations where necessary. We are providing guidance on the implications of the equality bill.”

The legislation also covers “any religious belief or philosophical belief” and even “a lack of belief”.

Philosophical beliefs to be protected could include humanism and pacifism, but a spokesman for Harman said scientific or political beliefs such as Marxism and fascism would not be covered. The commission added that the recently founded International Church of Jediism, with 500,000 followers worldwide who base their philosophy on the Star Wars films, would not qualify. Beliefs had to be heartfelt.

The watchdog also warns that advertisements giving preferential treatment to men or women could be illegal. This could mean the end of “ladies’ nights” at clubs, when women receive cut-price drinks or free entrance but men pay full price.

article

[vectorsrule]

Do Japanese Whalers, people who wear fur, loggers and Christians get the same protection in the UK? Just kidding we know only leftist get rights.

This post has been edited by vectorsrule: Mar 8 2010, 08:26 AM

[pict]

The watchdog also warns that advertisements giving preferential treatment to men or women could be illegal.

This should make for interesting stag or hen nights when the entertainment are strippers.

[Howsithangin]

You just knew it was coming... (IMG:http://www.rightnation.us/forums/style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

[Slide Rule]

Don’t mock my lentils: vegans to get discrimination rights

Correction. Protection from religious discrimination is to be provided to level 5 vegans only.
A level 5 vegan is defined as a someone who does not eat anything that casts a shadow.

[laziter]

This is the problem with providing people greater than equal rights. Now you have groups on fringes that are now "guaranteed" equal rights they had before they started but now there is an implication that others are less equal. Lovely process isn't it?

[lyria]

Fringe religions and agnostics/atheists should get the same anti-discrimnation protections as members of mainstream religions*, but vegans? WTF? That's a dietary choice.

*Inasmuch as these protections exist at all.

[Gertie Keddle]

The commission added that the recently founded International Church of Jediism, with 500,000 followers worldwide who base their philosophy on the Star Wars films, would not qualify. Beliefs had to be heartfelt.

Obviously, no one on the commission has ever been to a Con.

[JimDoe]

No, sorry. I will continue to deride vegans. My 2 kids, since they were little, were never warned of the dangers of the "boogey-man", I've always taken great humor and satisfaction in always warning them that "the vegans will get them" if they misbehave, don't clean their rooms, etc. To which they usually reply, "There's no such thing as vegans", and I always say, "Oh, they're all too real!"

Truthfully, there's nothing more frightening than a vegan!

This post has been edited by JimDoe: Mar 9 2010, 09:12 AM

[horseman]

No, sorry. I will continue to deride vegans. My 2 kids, since they were little, were never warned of the dangers of the "boogey-man", I've always taken great humor and satisfaction in always warning them that "the vegans will get them" if they misbehave, don't clean their rooms, etc. To which they usually reply, "There's no such thing as vegans", and I always say, "Oh, they're all too real!"

Truthfully, there's nothing more frightening than a vegan!

My oldest daughter, who is conservative politically and is in her junior year at Pitt is a "raw" vegan. Not only is she a vegan, she only eats raw food. It's not a choice she made because of any leaning toward the PETA lunatic fringe.

She's really not all that scary.

[Mooga]

Vegetable rights and peace!

[leftcoast, right...]

Murderers! Plants have feelings too! These people don't know beans about veggies! What a bunch of fruits! (IMG:http://www.rightnation.us/forums/style_emoticons/default/sm12.gif)

[pict]

True story. I knew a female vegan back in Scotland, a real fruitcake. She once complained she wasn't allowed on the bus with her pet goat, seriously.

She had a frikkin pet goat which she kept in her house as you would a dog or a cat. A lunatic of the first order.

[pict]

And she had a face full of zits, like a pizza.

[horseman]

True story. I knew a female vegan back in Scotland, a real fruitcake. She once complained she wasn't allowed on the bus with her pet goat, seriously.

She had a frikkin pet goat which she kept in her house as you would a dog or a cat. A lunatic of the first order.

There was a guy here in western PA who was killed by his "pet" bull. He kept a herd of something like 10 or 15 cows as "pets" He rented land from a local farmer.

[BerkeleyUndergro...]

In the real world, who's more likely to be the victim of hasseling: vegans by "normal" people, or "normal" people by vegans?

[Malaki]

Correction. Protection from religious discrimination is to be provided to level 5 vegans only.
A level 5 vegan is defined as a someone who does not eat anything that casts a shadow.

So they starve? Everything casts a shadow if there is sufficient light. A plant in the middle of a field will cast a shadow in the bright sunlight and if there is a enough moon light at night.

God how I wish I could one of them to say something like that to me.

[The-Stig]

No, sorry. I will continue to deride vegans. My 2 kids, since they were little, were never warned of the dangers of the "boogey-man", I've always taken great humor and satisfaction in always warning them that "the vegans will get them" if they misbehave, don't clean their rooms, etc. To which they usually reply, "There's no such thing as vegans", and I always say, "Oh, they're all too real!"

Truthfully, there's nothing more frightening than a vegan!

I worked with a hard core vegan for several years. He was always sick, looked anorexic, huddled up in his hooded sweat jacket (we called him the uni-bomber) and his political ideals were just as whacked out

[The-Stig]

In the real world, who's more likely to be the victim of hasseling: vegans by "normal" people, or "normal" people by vegans?

normal people by vegans. It isnt enough they root around the veggies they have to make it their lifes quest to convert evil carnivores to their screed. And it isnt just food. The REALLY radical wont wear clothes that are made from ANY kind of animal and wont eat foods that were touched by animals. Its freakin weird

[leftcoast, right...]

True story. I knew a female vegan back in Scotland, a real fruitcake. She once complained she wasn't allowed on the bus with her pet goat, seriously.

She had a frikkin pet goat which she kept in her house as you would a dog or a cat. A lunatic of the first order.

So? You have the sheep!