Should I Have My Birthday Party Later This Month?

[Red]

My birthday is later this month and I was planning on going to BareBurger with a few friends to celebrate my birthday. Two concerns though;
Since the host usually pays for the meal, I'm not sure if it'll be a good idea to pay for meals that have meat in them. You could suggest taking them to a Vegan restaurant, but then no one would come, since even suggesting such a thing sounds incredibly lame (also like 90% of my friends aren't even aware that I'm vegan).
Secondly, there's the ongoing pandemic, which may be winding down, but is still ongoing, and I shouldn't be lax about it just because others are.

One thing though; No alcohol; That's my policy. If someone wants to drink alcohol, they pay for it. Guess that also means no one would come.

Please give me advice as this is a life threatening situation.

[Jebus]

Seems like a no-brainer. Birthdays are stupid anyway. Instead you should celebrate accomplishments, such as a good grade you worked hard to get. In that case, I would encourage people to eat before meeting up somewhere. After that everyone pays for his/her own drinks.

Why don't you have vegan friends? It seems like it would be very easy for university students to meet other vegans in this day and age.

[Red]

Seems like a no-brainer. Birthdays are stupid anyway. Instead you should celebrate accomplishments, such as a good grade you worked hard to get.

Fair point.

In that case, I would encourage people to eat before meeting up somewhere. After that everyone pays for his/her own drinks.

That may be a good idea, maybe just bring people along on a little trip to the Museum of the Moving Image or something (if it reopens).

Why don't you have vegan friends? It seems like it would be very easy for university students to meet other vegans in this day and age.

Not in engineering, most I've met are pretty ambivalent to it or are somewhat against it. Even in the classes where there are people with different majors (like my Writing class) you'd be hard pressed to find current vegans/vegetarians (recidivism) that aren't doing it for religious purposes.

[brimstoneSalad]

What @Jebus said, celebrating birthdays doesn't make much sense, particularly for young adults.
It's more of a kid thing or something to do for parents and grandparents as an excuse for family gatherings.

I would not pay for other people's meat directly like that. Paying for goods or services and then the person who sold them to you choosing to eat meat later is one thing (and the person probably would have had meat either way), but going to a particularly high meat restaurant and buying it for them is another.

[Jamie in Chile]

If it`s your birthday I would have thought if they are good friends they ought to come. If you say to your friends "I would really like to try a vegan restaurant for my birthday, would you come" and they say they don´t like vegan food, that may be a friendship red flag anyway.

It will be easier to get them to go to a vegan restaurant now than when it isn´t your birthday. Who knows they may even like it and someone else might suggest going to there next time.

I don´t like paying for other people´s meat as a general rule, it´s not right really is it.

No comment on COVID-19, depends on the number of cases and so on whether it´s appropriate to meet up. Maybe if it seems high/medium/low then don`t go/follow expert advice/do go.