My vegan brother refuses to come to Thanksgiving if it’s not meat-free

A woman has revealed that her vegan brother has refused to come to Thanksgiving dinner if there is meat on the table.

The unnamed 31-year-old took to Reddit to reveal that she has never gotten along with her brother, Mark, 35.

When Mark became vegan many years ago, their relationship became even more strained as he tried to turn them all against meat.

Mark has since said he refuses to sit idly by and watch his family eat turkey during the holidays.

In a thread titled Am I the hole?the woman revealed that her mother made a 100 percent vegan meal for Thanksgiving last year.

However, she hosts the family gathering this time and refuses to completely eliminate meat from her menu.

Although vegan dishes will be available, Mark insists he will leave his family for the holidays if meat products are present.

Following her brother’s shocking confession, the 31-year-old took to the discussion forum to question whether she would be wrong for refusing to transform her Thanksgiving meal.

The post was captioned, “Am I the asshole for refusing to cook a vegetarian Thanksgiving dinner?”

She explained, “I feel like I’ve entered the twilight zone with this whole discussion, so tell me what’s going on, internet people.

‘Background: I (31F) and my brother Mark (35M) don’t get along well. As a teenager he saw a documentary about factory farming and decided to become a vegetarian. It quickly became very annoying to him, but my father shut him down when he started trying to get the rest of us to become vegetarian.

“Then he went to college, made a bunch of weird friends and became a militant vegan. It’s his whole personality. I stopped talking to him after he threw a fit over one of my birthday dinners at a steakhouse and spammed my messages and social media with pictures of abused cows.”

The woman noted that her parents have been trying to resolve the situation lately, with her mother even hosting a completely meat-free Thanksgiving last year.

‘My parents tried to remedy the situation and for a while it seemed like Mark was getting better, so I gradually allowed him to re-establish contact. Then he started dating Pam, a vegan influencer of sorts.

‘She’s apparently moderately popular online, but I have no idea what exactly she does. I don’t know if Mark was trying to impress her or what, but last Thanksgiving he insisted that Mom at least cook a vegetarian meal or they wouldn’t come on “ethical grounds.”

“My mom just wanted everyone to get along on her favorite holiday, so she agreed. It was not a nice meal,” she said.

However, because her mother is struggling with health problems, the 31-year-old is hosting Thanksgiving this year.

Due to the change of hosts, she and Mark became involved in a heated debate.

She added: “This year my parents downsized for retirement and my mother has health issues. I bought their house when they moved, so my mom asked me to host Thanksgiving so it would be business as usual.

‘I told everyone in the group chat so Mark and Pam could make travel arrangements and Pam immediately started talking about all the vegan substitution recipes she could give me to replace the traditional ones. I told them to send me a main course recipe that they like and that I would give it a try, but otherwise I’ll make the traditional meal and there should still be plenty for them to eat.

‘Mark and Pam have been arguing with me about this for days and then Mark said if I didn’t make a meat-free meal they wouldn’t come. This upset my mother, who asked me to just make what she earned last year to keep the peace, but I told her that Mark needs to get over himself and that I’m not coddling him. I’m having turkey for Thanksgiving.”

Although she wants to remain steadfast in her decision to add meat to their family dinner, she now wonders if she is wrong because she is upsetting her mother by separating the family.

At the end of the post, the 31-year-old said: ‘My father personally agrees with me, but Mark threatening not to come is upsetting my mother so much that he fears it will affect her health.

“There’s a good chance, but it’s not zero, that this will be one of the last family vacations we have with her.” My mother thinks I put turkey above my own family, but I’m not so sure anymore.’

People on the internet flooded the comments section and rushed to the woman’s defense while slamming her brother.

One person said: ‘Not that hole – you don’t put turkey before family – Mark puts tofurkey before family. You’ve been reasonably well accommodated with a vegan option. Mark shouldn’t hold the holidays hostage because of his own dietary choices. That’s ridiculous.

“If Mark wants to provoke an attack, he should. I feel sorry for your mother, she is suffering the most here. But she must realize that Mark is the one causing this division within the family, and that it is not fair to everyone else to give in to his demands.”

Another user wrote: ‘My aunt was vegan, she brought her own meals to family functions. Why can’t they do the same?’

Someone else added: ‘You’re not wrong, if they want it so bad they can make it themselves and take it with them!’

‘You even offered to cook them a vegan main course, which goes quite far (I think most people would just tell them to bring their own food). It seems like they’re taking the position that not only are they vegan, but they’re essentially forcing it on everyone by refusing to come, which is ridiculous.

“If your mother gets angry, it’s because of Mark’s actions and not yours… It’s not fair that everyone else has to conform to his demands. If he really cares about your mother, he would put her feelings first,” a fourth person said.