Sanctuary Publisher’s newly released title, Queer and Trans Voices: Achieving Liberation Through Consistent Anti-Oppression is a unique new book that attempts to build bridges between the LGBTQIA+ community and the Animal Rights/vegan community.
Edited by Julia Feliz Brueck and Zane McNeill, the book features the voices of queer vegans across the globe.We sat down with Zane to get to know them and hear more about the book:
Tell us about yourself. Who is Zane McNeill?
I’m at 10-year vegan who has worked with Farm Sanctuary, the Humane League, the Good Food Institute, the Real Food Challenge, the UNHCR, the HSUS, and the ASPCA. My background is in grassroots organizing, public policy, government relations, and litigation. I currently live in Baltimore MD but will be relocating to the Bay area to start my dream job with the ALDF as a paralegal. In my free time, I enjoy editing anthologies and writing articles on queer theory, critical geographies, and socially engaged art. I’m genderqueer and bisexual and use he/him and they/them pronouns.
How did you come up with the idea for this anthology exploring the interconnections between veganism and queerness?
I did my BA in History and MA in Political Science. I’m currently on the editorial board for the Activist History Review and believe that archiving and raising marginalized voices is an activist project. Inviting folks to contribute whose voices have been historically silenced and whose experiences have been eclipsed in the historical record is really important to me as an activist-scholar.
I have been in the animal rights movement since 2007 and have noticed that the folks doing the most transformative work live and fight at the intersections. Many of my favorite activists identified as Queer Trans Black Brown Indigenous People of Color (QTBBIPOC) but were not given the same platforms as white cis straight vegans. I wanted to provide the space for these QTBBIPoC, as well as other queer vegans, to explore the intersections of being LGBTQIA+ and vegan, think on how their LGBTQIA+ identity has informed their vegan activism, and reflect on what they would like to say to non-vegan LGBTQIA+ folks.
What do you find trans and queer vegans across the world have in common after reading about it from those living at all different intersections in different countries?
Our contributors hail from Jamaica, Bulgaria, Israel, the United States, Poland, Canada, Australia, and India. They identify as two-spirit, gay, trans, bisexual, nonbinary, pansexual, queer, and more. Despite our different locations and identities, we all connected with the terms ‘vegan’ and ‘queer’ and recognized that being vegan has informed our queerness and being queer has informed the way that we do vegan activism. Many of us have faced a form of ‘otherization’ for being LGBTQIA+ that has affected the way we understand speciesism and other forms of oppression. Our marginalization has inspired us to consistently fight against all forms of oppressions and include nonhumans in that.
What has this process taught you?
This is my first officially published text! Sanctuary Publishers isn’t like other publishers, which is why I came to them to pitch the book. This process was very fast compared to what I’m used to in academic publishing—it hit shelves within a year of my pitching it! I’m truly humbled to have worked with Julia and Sanctuary Publishers, as well as with all of the activists who have contributed to this collection. This has been a huge learning process for me—community projects are a lot of work—but I was lucky to have Julia to help me through it. I am excited to take what I have learned about organizing community projects and continue to publish collections that raise marginalized voices.
What do you hope readers will walk away with after reading the book?
I hope that LGBTQIA+ vegans will read this and find a sense of community. I found myself reading texts, thinking ‘I thought I was the only who felt like this.’ To have someone else write something that I thought I was alone in was very empowering. I hope the animal rights movement will recognize that queer folks have always been here and leading it and been inspired to engage with consistent anti-oppression work instead of just single-issue veganism. Lastly, I hope, with Pride just around the corner, that non-vegan LGBTQIA+ folk will pick this up and consider that by fighting for animal rights we are also fighting for our queer liberation.
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