Another activist in this realm is Michelle Carrera, a queer Puerto Rican activist who founded Chilis on Wheels, Casa Vegana de la Comunidad, and the Microsanctuary Resource Project. She is a believer in the power of mutual aid and solidarity work as the keys to collective liberation³.

For a heartwarming story of activism and animal rights, look to Derek Walter and Steve Jenkins. Derek and Steve adopted Esther believing her to be a micro-pig. It soon became apparent she was no micro, but a full-size pig of a breed usually used for food consumption. Upon this realization, they adopted a plant-based lifestyle, and have opened a pig sanctuary. In their words “Veganism is about living cruelty-free.  Cruelty-free to animals.  Cruelty-free to the environment, and cruelty-free to yourself⁴."

For another fun follow, Jabari Brisport is the first openly gay black state senator in New York – and a vegan activist. “I think anyone who has felt some sort of victimization or felt like they have been ‘othered’ or they had been made to feel ‘less than’ can then empathize when someone else is being victimized, whether that someone is a human-animal or a non-human animal⁵,” he has commented on the conjunction of animal rights and other social rights movements.