I decided I would be willing to date a non-vegan since despite the conveniences and shared ethics of other vegans, it can be hard to find them in general, and maybe I could influence people positively, though probably without any expectation for them to go vegan (but still hoping society will move toward it one day anyway).
But online questions asking people (non-vegans) if they would date a vegan really shocked and surprised me when most of the answers were no, mostly for reasons of inconvenience and a fear of being pulled into veganism. This leaves me feeling like finding other vegans may be my only option after all. Is this somewhat accurate?
From my experience, the vegan options at most conventional restaurants are laughably limited if they exist at all, and the food at most vegan restaurants rarely hits the spot for non-vegans. There certainly are restaurants with good options for both in bigger cities, but these are typically few and far between, leading to rapid burnout. Additionally, favorite places with no vegan options at all (BBQ joints, for example) get cycled out entirely.
In any case it is inherently more difficult, just because it’s inherently an additional limitation not present otherwise. Everytime the omnivore finds a new restaurant they want to check out, there’s the constantly looming “Vegan options?” consideration.
Regardless, I’d say that is the lesser of the issues, significantly less prominent than the preachiness. There’s always the suspicion of “Yeah, she says she’s fine with it, but 3 months from now the subtly sanctimonious comments are going to begin.”