Nothing about the Dylan Mulvaney Bud Light brand deal should have led to death threats and mass boycotts.
The four months of hate thrown at her since she uploaded an ad to Instagram promoting Bud Light and inclusivity is another in the long line of examples of our continuing moral decay.
“I’m bringing it up because what transpired from that video was more bullying and transphobia than I could have ever imagined,” Mulvaney said in a video she posted to TikTok last week, her first public comment since the beginning of the backlash for the short-lived partnership between the trans influencer and the beer brand.
“I should have made this video months ago, but I didn’t. I was scared. I was scared of more backlash, and I felt personally guilty for what transpired. So, I patiently waited for things to get better, but, surprise, they haven’t really,” Mulvaney said.
No, they haven’t, not for Mulvaney, not for the trans community, and on the business side of this story, sales for Bud Light, the still, for now, #1 U.S. beer brand, are down more than 30 percent since social conservatives launched their counterattack to the inclusivity spot.
Anheuser-Busch, the parent company of Bud Light, has been trying to mend fences with the forces of hate, its most recent effort being a new TV spot featuring Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, titled “Backyard Grunts with Travis Kelce,” featuring the football player with a group of friends settling into their lawn chairs with their Bud Lights amidst a series of grunts and groans.
You know, manly-type stuff there, dudes sitting in their frontyard, grunting, groaning.
Though actually, I dunno, is it just me, or is there something homoerotic to the whole circle of dudes grunting and groaning with each other thing?
Mulvaney, a Broadway actress, came out as a trans woman during the COVID pandemic, gaining a sizable social media following for videos she produced detailing her transition, and for using her platform to denounce efforts by Republicans to ban gender-affirming healthcare for trans youths.
In case you were wondering, this is why the social conservatives got their panties in a bunch over Bud Light partnering with Mulvaney.
Yep, it’s politics.
Ugly politics.
The fallout from the fake news outrage from the right has Mulvaney fearing even leaving the house.
“I have felt a loneliness that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. I’m not telling you this because I want your pity. I am telling you this because if this is my experience from a very privileged perspective, know that it is much, much worse for other trans people,” Mulvaney said.
I’ll inject myself into the story at this stage, because I’ve witnessed this in person. I was at a baseball game last summer when a friend tried to start a discussion of how teachers should address trans students in the classroom, unaware that my wife and I were at the game with another friend and his two sons, one of whom is trans, and later, after I’d shut down the awkward discussion of trans student rights, observed that it was “weird to see my rights being debated in front of me.”
Back to Mulvaney, who concluded her video making the point that her right to exist shouldn’t come down to being another point in the Republican vs. Democrat political wars.
“You might say, but ‘Dylan, I don’t wanna get political.’ Babe, supporting trans people, it shouldn’t be political. There should be nothing controversial or divisive about working with us,” Mulvaney said.
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Chris Graham
