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Food

Eating Fake Meat Is 'Transgender Vegetarianism,' British Politician Claims

Her comments did not go over well.
Eating Fake Meat Is 'Transgender Vegetarianism,' British Politician Claims
Photo via Flickr user T.Tseng

The Impossible Burger, in case you haven't heard, makes a mean veggie burger—one that bleeds a savory beet-based juice that mimics the pink interior of a medium-rare beef patty. (It's very good.)

But Baroness Ruth Deech, former principal of St. Anne’s College at the University of Oxford who now holds a position as a Crossbench peer in the House of Lords, would like you to know she’d never eat it. What’s more is that she can’t stomach the mere thought of any vegetarian consuming the Impossible Burger—she sees the very act as “sort of transgender vegetarianism.”

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Deech joined the BBC 4 Radio on Sunday morning to offer this and other sterling insights, the Telegraph reported on Sunday. During the live broadcast, according to the Telegraph, she reportedly railed against kids these days and what she perceived to be all their sensitivities. She criticized “snowflake” students who liked to no platform speakers, allegedly even claiming that she wished more of today's whippersnappers had the bravery of Malala Yousafzai.

The topic of discussion somehow drifted to a story in the Telegraph from Sunday about the meteoric rise of Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat, two companies that make plant-based foods that replicate the sensation of eating meat.

"No, I don't think I would, especially if this thing is being made to look as if it's bleeding,” Deech reportedly said when asked whether she’d eat one of these plant-based burgers. "If you're going to be a vegetarian you should just go out and eat lettuce and spring onions and be done with it. I don't like this crossover really. It's sort of transgender vegetarianism.” Please, m'lady, don't hurt yourself with those strenuous mental gymnastics.

Unsurprisingly, these comments didn’t sit well with some listeners, who took to Twitter to lambast Deech for her comments implying that existing as a trans person is a disingenuous way to live. (It's not entirely dissimilar from Rachel Dolezal’s stupefying insistence that she was “transracial.”)

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Beech did not respond to immediate request for comment from MUNCHIES on Monday regarding what she makes of this backlash. Superb timing, in any event, seeing as she made these comments the day after the Trans Day of Visibility.