Bud Light’s collaboration with transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney has left both conservative and leftist audiences displeased, as the beverage company struggles to appease both sides.
Anheuser-Busch, Bud Light’s parent company, has seen a decline in sales after partnering with Mulvaney, who openly shared his gender transition journey on social media.
The company’s attempts to backtrack from the collaboration and win back conservative customers have only served to further alienate members of the LGBTQ community.
Following the backlash from conservatives, Anheuser-Busch executives have offered vague apologies, minimized the extent of the campaign, and even employed experienced Republican lobbyists.
However, these superficial efforts to distance themselves from Mulvaney have angered LGBTQ activists, who are now calling for the company to fully endorse their ideology or face a boycott from the opposite end of the political spectrum.
Jay Brown, a senior vice president at the Human Rights Campaign, wrote a letter to Anheuser-Busch urging the company to issue a statement explicitly supporting Mulvaney and to provide transgender inclusion training for its executives.
Brown emphasized the importance of Anheuser-Busch standing in solidarity with Dylan and the trans community, while criticizing the company’s lack of commitment to its professed values of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Stacy Lentz, a co-owner of the Stonewall Inn, viewed as the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ political movement, told Newsweek that Anheuser-Busch had “missed an opportunity” by not standing by their commitment to the trans community.
Lentz warned that the brand could face extinction within a few years if they fail to fully embrace equality, given the left-leaning values prevalent among young Americans.
Two years ago, activists held a protest outside the Stonewall Inn, where they poured Anheuser-Busch beverages into a gutter to denounce the company’s donations to lawmakers promoting restrictions on radical gender theory.
In response, Anheuser-Busch highlighted its perfect 100% score from the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index for LGBTQ Equality.
Lentz expressed sympathy for Mulvaney, who has secured brand deals with other corporations, describing the influencer as being “caught in the middle of a horrible firestorm.”
John Casey, a contributor for The Advocate and public relations executive, accused Anheuser-Busch of fueling an extremist’s fire rather than defending Mulvaney and the campaign promoting acceptance.
Casey argued that Bud Light should be boycotted not by conservative figures like Kid Rock and Ted Nugent, but by the LGBTQ community itself.
