When I say the things I hear about SLC scare me shitless, I mean the stories one hears of someone who's passing through and makes the mistake of asking an sxe kid for a light and ends up getting beaten with tire chains. People have died in sxe related incidents around that way.
Why the unwillingness to discuss veganism openly? It would probably be simpler than lots of individual discussions.
For the record, I dislike veganism because it clashes with my personal belief system. I'm basically a non-practicing Pagan, and as such if I believe in anything it is the cycles and hierarchies of nature (good old mother earth). Feel your teeth: Those sharp incisors weren't made for chewing particularly tough Soy beans. Look at you stomach: those Protease enzymes aren't there to digest grass. Our bodies are designed to eat meat: to do otherwise is a denial of nature. This does not mean I'm a whole-hearted supporter of animal cruelty. Factory farming and a lot of slaughterhouse (and especially fur farming) methods are simply as un-natural, in my view. However, whilst this animal cruelty is tragic, I generally overlook it (Though I don't condone it. My family's cupboards are stocked with Free Range and Organic produce, and I don't think I've ever eaten anything from Spain as a protest against bull-fighting. These values have come down to me.) However, I believe it is wrong to concentrate on cruelty to animals when there is so much cruelty to humans. When all my fellow men and women are free from hunger, disease, war, oppression and intolerance, then I will start serious work on ending un-necessary animal cruelty. Until then, it is in my mind a sideline issue: victories against factory farmers, whalers or fox hunters to be taken wherever they can, but never lose sight of the humans dying needlessly every minute. No matter what your philosophies, animals cannot be equal to humans: the kinship one should feel for the other members of one's own species, the shared bond of common humanity, must come first, if we truly want to build a better society.