Vegan Firefighter Loses Bid To Protect Ethical Vegans From Discrimination
Vegan Firefighter Loses Bid To Protect Ethical Vegans From Discrimination
plantbasednews.org
Vegan Firefighter Loses Bid To Protect Vegans From Discrimination
29 comments
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Restrictive personal choices aren't a protected class if it's not imaginary sky-person friendship.
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It’s not really restrictive when there are 40,000 plants you can cook with.
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Eating healthily as a vegan, especially in a job that is very physical (thus requiring very careful management of protein) is quite a bit more restrictive.
That being said, the employer are fuckwits. They don't cook the food themselves; they very obviously cater. And caterers have catered (hah!) to vegans for decades now.
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It is restrictive by definition, but it's in the top 5 most common dietary restrictions, and it's a government program for forest firefighters, not a dinner party with your friend's boyfriend. Figure it out and make it work!
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And yet all of them taste better when deep fried in animal fat.
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This is the key thing, right here.
Although Veganism is a laudable choice, especially considering how meat production contributes so disproportionately to climate change and ecosystem destruction, it is a personal choice and not a fundamental dietary restriction that limits what you can actually safely eat. While an employer should make reasonable allowances to allow you to meet your own personal restrictions, meals in the bush, well away from infrastructure, makes any such allowance that much more onerous for an employer to meet.
Don’t get me wrong, tho - I am not a corporatist. Nothing would have made me happier than the company being found at fault and getting nailed to the wall. Corporations will try to get away with everything they legally can, and a lot that they legally cannot, so long as no-one complains. But the legal ruling did follow the law, and the law was very clear.
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I was vegan for a few years and from personal experiences I can say that eating meat/dairy after months/years of a strictly vegan diet will fuck you up gastrointestinally. Your body just doesn't have the same gut fauna anymore that was able to digest animal products. It would be hard to expect someone to fight a fire while they are experiencing cramps, bloating, and gastrointestinal distress.
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I have to agree with you here.
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Which is a fucking shame. The article says that the judge said the only reason he lost the case was because veganism has no deity. He practices his beliefs more sincerity and deeply than any Christian, but because there's no deity involved he gets shit.
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That sounds like a logistics issue. Are there vegan MREs? The station should order some in along with other non vegan options to have emergency rations ready in these situations.
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There are certainly vegetarian MREs. Idk about vegan. Given the compromises to taste that is made with any MREs it shouldn't be too difficult to develop with substitutes for all animal products.
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29 comments
I gotta side with him on this one. While his is a lifestyle choice, some people do have special dietary needs. If you want people to work in these types of conditions you have to take their needs into consideration.
Some people have medical or religious dietary restrictions. I think the employer would have to accommodate those. Ethical restrictions is a grey area.
But why are ethical restrictions any less valid than religious dietary restrictions?
I agree with this, though "lifestyle choice" can make it sound like a mere preference. Preferences aren't the same as sincerely held moral beliefs, and they shouldn't be treated as flippantly as these people treated him.