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That Vegan Teacher

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Kadie Karen Diekmeyer
Born (1964-09-24) September 24, 1964 (age 59)
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Other namesMiss Kadie, Miss Karen
Alma materConcordia University
Occupations
  • Internet personality
  • animal rights activist
Years active2018-present
Spouses
Dave
​
(before 2021)​
Giorgio
​
(m. 2021)​
Children3
YouTube information
Channels
Subscribers186,000+ (main channel)
Total views61.4 million (main channel)
Last updated: August 16, 2022

Kadie Karen Diekmeyer, popularly known as That Vegan Teacher, (born September 24, 1964) is a Canadian animal rights activist. former educator and singer-songwriter mainly known for promoting veganism. Before she started her online career, Diekmeyer was a nurse and later an ESL teacher but eventually left the latter job at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Early life

Diekmeyer was born on September 24, 1964, in Montreal,[1] and is of German and Swiss descent.[2] She went to a Catholic school and described herself as an average student.[2][3] Diekmeyer worked as a registered nurse at the Lakeshore General Hospital for 25 years,[4][2] and attended Concordia University to become an ESL teacher in French Canadian schools for nine years. She worked both jobs before dropping her nursing career to work full time in the school system and eventually leaving her job at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.[5][6]

Career

In 1995 Diekmeyer composed the nationalistic English-French folk song "Imaginez un Pays/Imagine a Country" for performing at the Unity Rally at the Place du Canada. She spoke of her anxiety before her public performance, which she had never done before, and got help from her friends and relatives to write the French lyrics.[4] Cheryl Cornacchia of the Montreal Gazette called her one of "the dozens of do-it-yourself artists making a place for themselves in Montreal".[7] As of 1999, Diekmeyer had written 47 songs, mainly about life and women's empowerment.[7]

Diekmeyer is known for her TikTok and YouTube career of promoting veganism.[8][9] She went viral on TikTok for a song, "Eating Animals is Wrong, McDonald's", in July 2020.[10] Rachel Kiley of The Daily Dot characterizes some of Diekmeyer's content as racist and homophobic,[11][12] including repurposing the slogan of "I can't breathe" for a song about the process of killing animals and arguing that coming out as an LGBT member is a selfish act as opposed to doing so as vegan.[11][12] Diekmeyer has drawn criticism for comparing the animal agriculture industry to the Holocaust.[11][10][13] In September 2020, she was criticized for saying she would no longer sign her organ donor card, not wanting to donate her organs to meat eaters after she dies.[14][15] In the month, the video received more than 750,000 views on TikTok and over 100,000 on Twitter.[16]

In March 2021, she made a YouTube video, titled "Are You Racist?", in which she spelled out the word "nigger" and encouraged people to ban cruelty instead of words.[9] Another controversy arose in result of Diekmeyer's comment on a 2021 TikTok video by gaming YouTuber TommyInnit, where he talked about his YouTube Play Button. Using TikTok's stitch function, she responded, "Tommy! The nice vegan girls don't want to see your buttons, but if you want them to play with your buttons, you're going to have to show them your fruits and your vegetables," while taking out a cucumber, pear, and apple. This sexual joke enraged people online, owing to TommyInnit's age, then 16.[10][17] Later that year, she was IP banned from TikTok for breaching community guidelines, though the exact cause was unknown.[11] Diekmeyer posted a video on her YouTube page, promising to not give up on her platform.[11][18] She has made more TikTok accounts but ended up with most of them being banned.[19]

Personal life and views

"With all the talk about how animals should be treated lately, my kids and I took a long look at our dog and decided not to eat any more meat. Here's an idea for a new law: before pet owners are allowed to eat cows, pigs, chickens, lambs or fish, they should first have to kill and eat an animal. In the scheme of things, what makes one animal more worthy of a life of love and safety than other?"

—Diekmeyer's open letter, 2004[20]

Diekmeyer is bisexual.[21] Despite her Catholic upbringing, she later denounced the church, and Christianity, in general, becoming an atheist with some sorts of pantheistic worldviews.[3] Additionally, on her YouTube channel, she has spoke against religious fanaticism, and lambasted other religions, such as Islam and Judaism, for their doctrines she considered to be barbaric but has praised their cultures.[3] In her opinion, people should change their religion, if possible, everyday, and do not stick to one religion only.[22] She believes science has proven the Bible to be mere fairytales, and sees religion as a tool to control the society that only leads people to wars than peace; in her opinion, anyone can be morally good without religion.[23] She is a Unitarian Universalist.[4]

Diekmeyer speaks English and French.[4] A vegan since June 27, 2016,[1] she condemns vegaphobia.[24] Her open letter, "Dog persuaded them to give up meat", censuring cruelty to animals, was published in the Montreal Gazette in 2004.[25] Diekmeyer has a dog named Bella, who she adopted at ten months old and has been vegan since August 2017.[2] She has married at least two times, first with a person named Dave, with whom she has three children.[7][4] After becoming vegan, however, she decides to embrace antinatalism, viewing birth as condemning people to suffering.[26] She was married to an Italian named Giorgio on December 4, 2021, which follows a courtship of nine and a half years.[1] She lives in Montreal, with him and her mother-in-law, who are also vegan.[27]

See also

Notes and references

Citations

  1. ^ a b c Diekmeyer, Kadie Karen (December 5, 2021). Finally! After 9 1/2 Years! (video). YouTube. Archived from the original on April 12, 2022. Retrieved February 17, 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d Diekmeyer, Kadie Karen (March 2, 2021). Ep.2 - Ethan Trace is a Disgrace (video). YouTube. Archived from the original on April 12, 2022. Retrieved February 17, 2022.
  3. ^ a b c Diekmeyer, Kadie Karen (February 18, 2021). Eat Pizza. Change Your Religion (video). YouTube. Retrieved February 17, 2022.
  4. ^ a b c d e Carroll, Ann (October 24, 1996). "Songstress spreads unity". Montreal Gazette. p. 111. Archived from the original on April 12, 2022. Retrieved April 12, 2022.
  5. ^ Diekmeyer, Kadie Karen (September 10, 2021). @Mic the Vegan vs @SSSniperWolf (video). YouTube. Retrieved September 11, 2021.
  6. ^ Williams, Janice (January 22, 2021). "Who Is the Infamous Vegan Teacher TikToker Behind Gordon Ramsay's Video?". Newsweek. Archived from the original on March 19, 2021. Retrieved April 14, 2022.
  7. ^ a b c Cornacchia, Cheryl (February 15, 1999). "Do-it-yourself artists". Montreal Gazette. p. 57. Archived from the original on April 12, 2022. Retrieved April 12, 2022.
  8. ^ Lee, Bryan (February 5, 2021). "Opinion: The Vegan Teacher Controversy". The Jag Journal. Archived from the original on May 6, 2021. Retrieved April 14, 2022.
  9. ^ a b Bonfiglio, Nahila (March 4, 2021). "That Vegan Teacher spells out N-word in video urging people to 'ban cruelty, not words'". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on March 19, 2021. Retrieved March 8, 2021.
  10. ^ a b c Asarch, Steven (February 24, 2021). "A TikTok animal rights activist was banned from the app days after making a sexual joke about a 16-year-old YouTuber". Insider. Archived from the original on March 19, 2021. Retrieved February 25, 2021.
  11. ^ a b c d e Kiley, Rachel (February 23, 2021). "TikTok bans That Vegan Teacher after homophobic, racist videos". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on March 19, 2021. Retrieved February 25, 2021.
  12. ^ a b Kiley, Rachel (January 26, 2021). "Popular TikTok vegan co-opts 'I can't breathe' to protest animal cruelty". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on March 19, 2021. Retrieved March 3, 2021.
  13. ^ Muñoz, Rowan (September 30, 2021). "Opinion: That Vegan Teacher's Swan Song". The Cougar Press. Archived from the original on April 12, 2022. Retrieved April 12, 2022.
  14. ^ Digital Staff (September 14, 2020). "Vegan activist blasted for saying she would not donate organs to meat eaters". Sunrise. 7NEWS. Archived from the original on March 19, 2021. Retrieved March 5, 2021.
  15. ^ Chiorando, Maria (September 14, 2020). "Vegan TikTok Star Blasted For Refusing To Donate Organs To Meat Eaters". Plant Based News. Archived from the original on March 19, 2021. Retrieved March 5, 2021.
  16. ^ Morris, Seren (September 14, 2020). "Vegan TikTok activist says she would not donate organs to meat eaters". Newsweek. Archived from the original on March 19, 2021. Retrieved March 5, 2021.
  17. ^ Puhak, Janine (February 24, 2021). "'That Vegan Teacher' says TikTok ban won't silence her following petition, controversies". Fox News. Archived from the original on March 19, 2021. Retrieved February 25, 2021.
  18. ^ Song, Sandra (February 24, 2021). "That Vegan Teacher Has Been Banned From TikTok". Paper. Archived from the original on April 14, 2022. Retrieved April 14, 2022.
  19. ^ Schroeder, Audra (March 9, 2021). "That Vegan Teacher created a new TikTok account—but it's already gone". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on April 14, 2022. Retrieved April 14, 2022.
  20. ^ Hobson, Karen (September 17, 2004). "Dog persuaded them to give up meat". Montreal Gazette. Archived from the original on April 12, 2022. Retrieved April 12, 2022.
  21. ^ Diekmeyer, Kadie Karen (October 21, 2021). All LGBTQ+ Should Be Vegan (video). YouTube. Retrieved February 17, 2022.
  22. ^ Diekmeyer, Kadie Karen (December 1, 2021). @Ben Shapiro: Be A Good Jew - Be Morally Consistent - Be Vegan From Now On! (video). YouTube. Retrieved February 17, 2022.
  23. ^ Diekmeyer, Kadie Karen (April 13, 2021). Does Ben Shapiro Believe In Unicorns (video). YouTube. Retrieved April 12, 2022.
  24. ^ Giliver, Liam (February 24, 2021). "Who Is That Vegan Teacher? Why Did TikTok Ban Her?". Plant Based News. Archived from the original on January 26, 2021. Retrieved April 12, 2022.
  25. ^ Castravelli, Chris (September 18, 2004). "So what does rover eat?". Montreal Gazette. Retrieved April 12, 2022.
  26. ^ Diekmeyer, Kadie Karen (November 12, 2021). Nobody Should Have Kids! Agree or disagree? Write your ideas in the comments! (video). YouTube. Retrieved April 12, 2022.
  27. ^ Diekmeyer, Kadie Karen (December 10, 2021). My 81-Year Old Mother-in-Law, Won't Leave My Kitchen! (video). YouTube. Archived from the original on April 12, 2022. Retrieved February 17, 2022.
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