Intersectional Veganism recognises the importance of human rights issues, issues of social justice and inclusivity for marginalised communities, understanding animal rights as an extension of human rights. Intersectional Veganism seeks to ensure a truly inclusive vegan movement which gains mass appeal across the globe, challenging injustice at its core wherever injustice occurs, and emphasising the need for systemic change as well as individual change, recognising how all oppressions are interlinked. Intersectional Veganism challenges the idea that veganism is a white middle class movement, highlighting and emphasising diverse voices and experiences.

 

A number of vegan campaigns groups have embraced the intersectional framework, much of it based on the work of Dr Kimberley Crenshaw in the 1980’s, and as such the vegan movement is a more inclusive and dynamic movement than a decade ago. However, the intersectional framework has also been rejected by a number of people within the movement, with a common critique that intersectionality focuses more on the identity than the individual, and that the inclusion of human rights issues takes away from the focus on animals. Vegans that go back to the 80’s may recall a movement that was very much intersectional by nature, especially regarding activism where it was standard to be active for both animal rights and human rights causes. The founders of the original UK vegan social movement in the 40’s and 50’s shared a broad vision for veganism that very much included the development of people and planet as well as animals, and the established definition of veganism (created in 1979 and refined in 1988) points to the inclusivity of humans among the benefits of veganism.

 

Intersectional Veganism lies at the heart of the movement for multiple reasons – it encourages genuine diversity & inclusivity and helps remove barriers to inclusivity, which is essential if the vegan movement is become a mass movement spanning the entire globe, and it focuses on system change as well as individual change, recognising that if we are to achieve a truly just world for all sentient beings, going vegan isn’t enough unless we challenge unjust systems too, striking at the roots of exploitation and oppression.