Ew, You're a Vegan?!

Todays post is inspired by the most common, annoying and frustrating I get when people find out I'm a vegan.
I never usually volunteer this information - after all, what relevance is it to people? Although I never attempt to hide it, I do find it a bit awkward, and invariably get the same responses - (ew, why?! really??)
I class myself as an 'accidental' vegan - that being that I never set out with the aim to cut out meat and animal products from my diet. I turned vegetarian as a challenge for myself 3 years ago, to see if I could go without it. Since then, I haven't missed it, so never thought about re-introducing it back into my diet. The Vegan thing happened a few months ago, when I discovered I had a dairy intolerance (see my post on the elimination diet).
Since then, naturally people that know me have been naturally curious and inquisitive about my 'choice' to be a vegan. I don't want to get into the various ethical issues surrounding veganism, but I find the responses i get completely baffling and wanted to share them with you.
1) "omg, why are you a vegan? why? just why? don't you want some meat? here, have some meat, go on, I dare you" to which my response is usually just a look that I like to think conveys my thoughts and feelings towards this particular league of individual...
2) "oh, so you're allergic to gluten then" - not quite, no.
3)"are you really?! wow, I couldn't give up chocolate/bacon/chicken/cake" - I don't mind this one at all, and it is by far the most common. I understand that it's a novelty to some people, and quite an odd thing to do if you didn't have to do it
4) *after explaining choosing not to eat meat and being intolerant to dairy* "oh, so you're not a proper vegan then" no, I'm just a pretend one? Of course I'm a proper vegan you tool!
5) "what's a vegan?" *cue 5 people jumping in with definitions of lacto-vegetarians, coliacs, fruitarians, raw-diet, pescatarians, and eventually, I might manage to offer up the proper definition

Although now I'm sitting and laughing at these scenarios as I replay them in my head, I do find myself at times being quite wound up by it. I don't understand what impact my diet has on other people - I've had people repeatedly try and talk me out of it, when actually, I have never once tried to talk anyone into it. My views on what I can and can't eat are mine, and not subject to anyone else's opinions.

What are people's reactions like when they find out you're vegan? What to do you say when people tell you they're vegan? I'd love to know!