The Vegan Thread

Veganism is a lifestyle choice, just like religion. It does not need to be protected against discrimination by law. The rest of us shouldn't really have to suffer at the expense of a tiny minority. Why is this government obsessed with making everybody equal, pandering to every minority out there? So nobody hurts their feelings?

Because people are often discriminated against racially, owing to religion or disability, or owing to gender or their sexual orientation. No doubt you wouldn't disagree with legal protection in those main areas? (I realise that religion might not fit into this list for you, although I don't know what your view is.)

You seem to be using 'equal' with the meaning slipping towards 'the same'?

The key here is not that people are meant to be made equal or 'the same', full stop. It is about tackling discrimination. This actually does the opposite to making everyone 'the same'--it champions diversity. Imagine a world in which gay people had no protection--as used to be the case, and it's not too hard to realise what it was like. Many would simply stay in the closet and become very unhappy. The situation now is far from perfect but a marked advance on what things used to be like.

FYI discrimination culminates in things like racist or homophobic killings or attacks, or the murder of disabled people because of their disability, so it's an issue to be taken very seriously indeed.

It's a bit like with H&S legislation--it started because of deaths in industrial processes, e.g. people being killed in building work or in large ports, etc. Now it is applied, often owing to chronically risk-averse insurance companies, in areas where it manifestly has no sensible application--but that shouldn't distract us from the very real importance this sort of thing has. I acknowledge that the same risk exists in equality legislation, too.

Also see my earlier post--I certainly think that legislation in general is a bit of a secondary approach and that in an ideal world, people would do things right to start with, e.g. safeguard industrial workers better without legal instruments. However, we don't live in an ideal world.