I have found a great little group on cafemom.com for vegetarians and vegans that has some wonderful vegan women on it. 6 years ago I used to really like the veg*n group on livejournal.com but they became very argumentative and everything became a debate, it was no fun anymore. Today I discovered a website called vegweb.com and it looks like they have some networking and recipes etc for vegans and vegetarians alike I haven’t had a chance to really check it out but it may turn out to be really cool.

So, if a vegan is lucky enough to have a vegan as a partner, then there’s a lot of face time right there. And we utilize it. We talk about veganism at least every other day. Whether it’s in regard to raising our kids vegan or a conversation one of us had with someone or some annoying link we saw on Facebook, it’s nice to have that immediate connection and interaction.

That said, as with most things, one person (even if (especially if?) they’re your significant other) usually isn’t enough to stay sane. We’re lucky enough in our city to have a pretty active vegan parenting group, but even without that I think we’d be all right. I’ve found support online in the past, on the Vegan Freak forums mostly. For the first few years of being vegan, my wife and I pretty much went it alone. Only when we had kids did we feel the urge to seek out a real live face-to-fact community. And we found it. In fact, we helped build it.

For me, it’s important to have veg friends for two main reasons: First, I know that having dinner at each other’s houses is safe. Second, it’s important to me to be able to talk about where the movement is going with people who give a damn and are concerned about that too.

The thing is, though, for me, someone being veg isn’t enough by itself to make me want to be friends with them. In fact, we have to get along well enough in other ways that I’d want to be friends with them regardless of their dietary and lifestyle choices.