Wishing you an amazing New Year

What a year!

I'm sitting here at home thinking about how amazing this year has been for us, for equality, and for veganism.

Some of my personal highlights were vacationing at the beach in Encinitas with my beloved and joining a bunch of vegan bloggers at Vida Vegan Con in Portland, Oregon.

Encinitas is a little slice of heaven just north of San Diego. We rented a little studio on the beach and spent most of our time right there on the beach. Perfect. Add in wonderful friends, delish vegan food and a side trip to Los Angeles and it made for the perfect summer vacation.

At Vida Vegan Con I had the honor of meeting so many people who are changing the world. I left the conference feeling inspired and hopeful for a future that includes more people being a voice for the voiceless and amazing vegan food choices along the way.

Marriage equality spread throughout this wonderful country of ours.

Bigotry persisted.

Ag-gag bills, ones in which it would make it illegal to do undercover animal cruelty investigations, didn't make it to law.

Vegan cuisine became more and more talked about. In Denver, we even got our first vegan market, Nooch, as well as our first vegan restaurant, Native Foods.

This blog, The Gay Vegans, hosted our first non-profit fundraiser and we raised just over 3,600 pounds of dog and cat food for Animal Haus, a local non-profit that gives the food to people who are hurting financially and need a little help in supporting their companion animals. What a wonderful time that was, and it became so successful with the participation of so many of you!

I could go on, and I might in another post, but I don't like my posts to get too long.

Mike and I wish you the most amazing 2014, a year filled with love, joy, activism, compassion and passion. Let's all work together to be a voice for the voiceless and to make this world a better, safer place for all living beings!

Thanks for reading!

Being a voice in your state legislature

Every day I hear or read about people who complain about something that their governor just signed into law or that their state legislature is discussing.

This week, Iowa's governor signed into law what many groups I support refer to as the ag-gag law. It is now illegal in Iowa for people to go undercover to report how animals are treated in slaughterhouses and animal production plants. And no, there is no live TV feed from these places that makes undercover unnecessary. The deal now is that we won't know of any inhumane actions against the animals unless someone breaks the law. If you have followed Mercy For Animals you know that inhumane acts occur on a daily basis in countless factory farms and slaughterhouses.

I called the governor asking him not to sign this bill. So did thousands of others. Democrats and Republicans. People of all faiths and of no faith. Veg folk and non veg folks.

The point of this blog post isn't really the ag-gag law. It's the idea that those of us who are a voice for the voiceless must use that voice in our state legislators. It's vital that we know who represents us in the state house and the state senate, that they know who we are, and that they know our opinions on what matters most to us.

I realize many activists don't vote and they each have personal reasons why they don't vote. I haven't missed an election, on every level, since I was 18. Yet you can be one who chooses not to vote and still be a voice in your state house or senate.

I'm not sure how many Iowans called their representatives to ask them to vote no on this bill. I'm equally unsure as to how many hard-core voices for the voiceless (whoever "the voiceless" is to you) know who represents them at the state level.

If you are interested in finding out, check out this website:

http://votesmart.org/

All you have to do is type in your zip code and the site will tell you who represents you from the local level to the national level. Once you find out who represents you, send them a nice email introducing yourself. Be prepared to not always be in agreement with those who represent you. What fun would that be!

Thanks for reading! I would love to hear what you find out about your elected officials!