Episode 107
(Air Date: October 17th, 2018)
Today’s episode consists of a conversation I had with someone over Instagram Live.
This is a long, unusual, and intense discussion between myself and a fellow vegan who identifies as transphobic.
PLEASE LISTEN TO THE ENTIRE CONVERSATION before making any judgments, comments, or replies.
I ask that everyone listening to this keep the OPEN-EST mind possible. THAT WON’T BE EASY! It wasn’t easy for me approaching or having this conversation. It really took something to keep my cool and to be constructive, but as a result, a beautiful shift took place through this conversation.
My guest, Darren, learned a lot by the end of our conversation. And I learned a lot about how to have a productive conversation with someone who I disagree with, even when I am offended by their words and actions.
PLEASE NOTE: I am asking you to honor this discussion by NOT sending him any hate on social media. It was incredibly brave of him to accept my request to have this discussion, and I am so moved by how open he was to feedback, criticism, and a new way of looking at things.
Darren and I spoke after this conversation to debrief how we feel it went, and we both agreed that it could make a big difference for people if we shared this conversation so others could learn from it.
If you feel any sort of way about this episode, please message ME directly — not Darren. Thank you!
SOME BACKGROUND ON THIS CONVERSATION:
After posting transphobic comments on my Instagram post, I wanted to fight back. I wanted to list all the facts and really school this guy.
But something compelled me to take a different approach.
Halfway through typing my reply, I deleted it and wrote:
“I invite you to join me on Instagram Live and we’ll have an honest discussion about this. Sounds like you feel you have a message that needs to be shared, and sound like you’re equally certain that point can withstand some criticism and fact checking.
So there’s my offer. If you accept, DM me and we’ll work out a time.
There is no counter-offer and any further comments from you here will be deleted. So if you’d like to reply, do so directly so we can set up this IG Live chat.”
Well, to my surprise, he wrote back asking “What time?”
This episode is the conversation that took place between us on Instagram Live. What you can’t see here are the comments that were coming in from live viewers, but we do acknowledge and respond to a few of them.
If you’d like to watch the video of our conversation, you can watch it here:
https://youtu.be/mtl0BheiCIo
Please be in touch and let us know what you thought of this episode!
– CALL US: (315) VEGAN-01, that’s 315-834-2601
– EMAIL US: bigfatveganradio@gmail.com
– TWEET US: @BigFatVegans
– FACEBOOK US: Search for “Big Fat Vegan Radio”
– MAILING LIST!!!: Sign up for our new Mailing List/Registry HERE!
– MAILING LIST!!!: Sign up for our new Mailing List/Registry HERE!
– MAILING LIST!!!: Sign up for our new Mailing List/Registry HERE!
Oh, and…
BUY A T-SHIRT!!!
(Did we mention we have T-Shirts??? Cuz we do Only a few left!!!)
FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER & INSTAGRAM!
@HoneyLaBronx
Check out
Honey LaBronx’s Vegan Drag Queen Cooking Show
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS!
HONEY IS COMING TO SAN FRANCISCO!
Honey will be performing (fingers crossed) in San Francisco this coming Monday. Details on her website and Facebook page.
…and after that…
HONEY LABRONX IS GOING BACK ON TOUR!
From November 3rd (somewhere near Charlotte, North Carolina) ending up back in New York City on December 3rd.
MAKE SURE YOU’RE SUBSCRIBED TO HER MAILING LIST so you know when and where you can see her!
HONEY LABRONX HAS A NEW (NEW!) WEBSITE! Parts of it are still being developed, but check it out here!
www.VeganDragQueen.com
ALSO, JOIN HONEY’S MAILING LIST IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY!:
www.TinyURL.com/HoneysList
ALSO…
If you’d like to support the Vegan Drag Queen cooking show, as well as Honey LaBronx’s other efforts — please check out her Patreon and consider becoming a monthly supporter at:
www.Patreon.com/HoneyLaBronx
Buy some famous Medieval Oil!
AND AS ALWAYS
SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR FRIENDS
Michael Harren for the theme song
and
Kelly Huffine for the artwork
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS
Hi!
I’m a vegan, transgender woman and animal rights activist. I watched the whole thing! I wanted to mention some important details to add to the conversation.
I think at some point the assumption was made that hormone replacement therapy is inherently non-vegan. I wanted to clarify that I’m fairly certain there are no hormone products on the legal market, at least in the U.S., that are derived directly from animals. In the past, estrogens used by trans women were equine estrogens, but that has been since discontinued.
The only other inactive ingredients besides the synthetic, bioidentical estrogen in the estradiol valerate that I inject are castor oil and benzyl alcohol. The testosterone that trans men use is also synthetic in origin. Some trans women in the U.S. may take sprinolactone as a testosterone blocker. Spironolactone does sometimes contain magnesium stearate, which may or may not have an animal-based origin. That said, not every trans woman takes spironolactone — they may take another testosterone blocker, or have no need for one due to having had bottom surgery.
All of this said, there is a risk that any testosterone blocker, estrogen, or testosterone product for trans men, may have been tested on animals. I think that’s an entirely separate conversation, as there this possibility exists for almost every medication prescribed today. We would have to argue that the concept of people taking necessary medication on principle is inherently non-vegan, which I at least do not believe. I think this concept ties along well with what Ben is saying here about how he would never ask an alcoholic or someone with an eating disorder to go vegan.
All in all, I think being vegan is about reducing unnecessary suffering of non-human animals. Just my two cents!