Showing Off Our Compassion AND Pride

Teams of Compassion Over Killing staff and volunteers spent the past two weekends participating in Pride celebrations in Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and Baltimore—and handing out over 15,000 pieces of pro-veg literature and sharing more than 7,000 vegan food samples!

Spreading the messages that “No one is free when others are oppressed” and that “Compassion is Sexy,” we proudly marched in the Pride parades and spoke with numerous vegetarians-to-be who were excited to receive our pro-veg literature, including our popular Vegetarian Guides to Los Angeles, DC, and Baltimore.

Equally popular were the lemon, chocolate chip, and peanut butter Sunflour Baking Company cookies and the Mandarin Orange “Chicken” we dished out during the festivals to hungry passersby looking for a treat in the heat.

“This is the best meat I’ve ever had!” said one kid before realizing that what he was eating was vegetarian. His jaw hit the floor when we told him it was veg, and he happily walked away with a Vegetarian Starter Guide. Another young man who said he tried going vegetarian in the past told us: “This amazing. If this kind of veggie meat is available in stores, I think I can go totally vegetarian again!”

We heard from so many others who wanted to go veg, had gone veg and just needed more support, or current vegetarians interested in going vegan. One girl told us she became vegetarian after seeing our pro-veg commerical on MTV, while another person said he had just watched Vegucated  the evening before and that coming across our table was fortuitious—it was his first day as a vegan, and we had all the resources he needed to get started. And an 11-year-old girl who had told her mother that very morning that she didn’t want to hurt animals by eating meat saw us, smiled, and stated: “This is MY table, mom!”

Check out more colorful photos of the fun on Facebook, and join us at an upcoming outreach event. Together we can create a kinder world for all of us, both human and nonhuman.