Vegaphobia

[9] Three French Veggie Pride activists used the term végéphobie meaning discrimination against vegetarians, in a 2011 document.

[10] British sociologists Matthew Cole and Karen Morgan used the term vegaphobia and the derived adjective vegaphobic in a 2011 study, meaning prejudice against vegans specifically.

[14] In 2018, a survey of over 1,000 British and American vegans from the weight-loss application Lifesum found 80% of respondents to have experienced some form of anti-vegan prejudice.

This reflects a deeply ingrained association between meat-eating and masculinity, highlighting widespread and unexpected biases even within the vegan community.

[24] Academic Laura Wright stated in 2015 that media organizations and wider discourse routinely mischaracterize vegan diets, highlighting situations where media outlets reported the death of children as being from a "vegan diet" rather than the parental neglect that was the actual cause.

Vegaphobia is most common among people with conservative or right-wing beliefs, especially the ones associated with Abrahamic religions,[14][29][30] being often most pronounced in far-right individuals and groups.

[15] A survey of about 1,000 participants showed that vegans are perceived as a threat mainly by older and less educated people, and by meat eaters who are particularly convinced of their habit.

[30] A 2019 study also found a positive correlation between world-views rooted in social dominance of some groups over others (i.e., institutionalised discrimination) and a negative perception of vegans.

[42] In 2020, a parliamentary employee of the nationalist Alternative for Germany called someone who ordered vegetarian food in the canteen of the German parliament a pejorative term, saying "we are going to get you".

[43] Philosopher Oscar Horta links vegaphobia to discrimination against vegans, which he observes, among other instances, at the workplace.

[46][47] [48] A survey by the law firm Crossland Employment Solicitors found that among "over 1,000" UK-based vegan employees, nearly a third felt discriminated against at their workplace.

[49] A London NHS trust (a unit of the UK's National Health Service) in 2017 put up a discriminatory job advert for an occupational therapist (OT) saying, "Unfortunately, OTs with vegan diets cannot be considered", and that "Veganism or other highly restrictive eating practices cannot be accommodated."

[54] A vegan college student from Bristol was told to watch bull castration and visit an abattoir or fail her course in animal management.

[5][62][63] Sophie Wilkinson of Grazia opined in 2018 that discrimination against vegans (unlike sexism, racism, and homophobia) does not go beyond the level of microaggressions.