Global Courant
Transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney says she felt let down by Bud Light after experiencing “more harassment and transphobia than I could have ever imagined” over her partnership with the beer giant.
In a video posted to Instagram and TikTok on Thursday, she said she was “waiting for the brand to contact me. But they never did.” She said she should have spoken out sooner but was scared and hoped things would get better but it didn’t.
“For months I’ve been afraid to leave my house,” Mulvaney said. “I’ve been ridiculed in public. I’ve been followed and I’ve felt a loneliness I wouldn’t wish on anyone.”
Shortly after Mulvaney cracked open a Bud Light in an Instagram video on April 1 as part of a promotional contest for the beer brand, an outpouring of criticism and hatred erupted. She showed off a can with her face on it that Bud Light sent her – one of the many business freebies she receives and shares with her millions of followers.
Conservative figures and others called for a boycott of Bud Light, while Mulvaney’s supporters criticized the beer brand for not doing enough to support it.
In the weeks and months that followed, two marketing executives at parent company Anheuser-Busch InBev took a leave of absence, Bud Light lost its decades-long position as America’s top-selling beer, and the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest advocacy group for LGBTQ+ rights, suspended equality. – and containment rating for the brewing giant at.
“If a company hires a trans person and then doesn’t publicly assist them, in my opinion it’s worse than not hiring a trans person at all, because it gives customers permission to be as transphobic and hateful as they want to be,” Mulvaney said , without mentioning Bud Light.
Belgium-based ABInBev did not immediately respond to emails asking for comment on Friday.
In a statement issued April 14, Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth said the company had “never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people. Our job is to bring people together while enjoying a beer.”
Other companies, including Target and Starbucks, have recently come under fire for their efforts to appeal to the LGBTQ+ community, especially during June’s Pride celebrations, but received more outcry when they tried to back out .
The clashes come amid a furious and rapidly spreading debate over transgender rights. At least 17 states have enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming care for minors, most since the beginning of this year.
