Los Angeles Veggie Pride Parade

Today was the first Veggie Pride Parade ever held in Los Angeles. The event was coordinated by the animal sanctuary Animal Acres and included a 5k walk through Culver City/Venice, vendors, music, keynote speakers, and a ton of enthusiastic people.

I arrived on the scene to find a slew of people dressed as different animals (the gamut ran from a giraffe to a penguin to Disney characters), fruits and veggies, and even a block of tofu. That's not how I roll, but I was clad for the cause in a rockin' Secret Society of Vegans t-shirt.

The walk got on its way with chants of "What do we want? A vegan world! When do we want it? Now!" and "Go green! Be vegan! Save the world!" Creative and bold posters peppered crowd, as well. The number of cars that drove by honking in support was astounding. There was even a little "keeping the peace" police presence.

I talked to a number of people I'd not normally encounter face-to-face; people like the associate editor of Vegetarian Times, who patiently listened as I voiced my desire for the magazine to have more vegan representation, the couple behind Vegetarians in Paradise, the manager of the restaurant Seed, and Rory Freedman of the Skinny Bitch series (she was also a keynote speaker at the event).

Of course, I was also able to spend time with fantastic people I already knew, including the amazing Melisser and Strummer of The Urban Housewife and Strummer Calling, Kim from C'est la V, the couple behind Happy Cow, many of my true life friends who are immensely important to me (you know who you are), and some people who I hope will become new friends.

It was a beautiful, sunny day and nothing short of a perfect celebration of veganism.