Online Right Rages Over Bud Light’s Embrace of Transgender Influencer, but Real World Yawns

Bud Light is facing a boycott after partnering with a transgender influencer, Dylan Mulvaney, for a March Madness promotion.Ms. Mulvaney, who has more than 10 million TikTok followers from documenting her day-by-day transition to female from male, posted a series of videos to Instagram Saturday announcing the Bud Light partnership. In one video she is in a bubble bath with Bud Light cans behind her as she dances. In another, she dons an Audrey Hepburn look.“This month I celebrated my day 365 of womanhood and Bud Light sent me possibly the best gift ever: a can with my face on it,” Ms. Mulvaney says, as the screen flashes to a closeup of the can.The backlash from the right was swift. A musician who is an outspoken Donald Trump supporter, Kid Rock — born Robert James Ritchie — posted an angry video to his social media accounts that went viral, with more than 170,000 likes on Twitter alone.“Let me say something to all of you and be as clear and concise as possible,” Mr. Ritchie says, donning a white MAGA hat. He then shoots three cases of Bud Light with a semi-automatic rifle before turning back to the camera. “F— Bud Light and f— Anheuser-Busch,” he says.Mr. Ritchie is not alone in his outrage at Bud Light and its parent company, Anheuser-Busch. Others are posting videos of themselves pouring cans of Bud Light down the sink with the hashtags #BoycottBudLight, #BoycottAnheuserBusch, and #GoWokeGoBroke.Prominent right wing commentators like Matt Walsh are also calling for a boycott. “The good news is that Bud Light tastes like rain water that someone siphoned out of a tin bucket so it should be very easy to boycott,” Mr. Walsh tweeted.A podcaster and Townhall columnist, Derek Hunter, tweeted, “@budlight: the groomer of beers.”Anheuser-Busch, though, is standing by its decision to partner with Ms. Mulvaney. “Anheuser-Busch works with hundreds of influencers across our brands as one of many ways to authentically connect with audiences across various demographics,” a company representative told Fox News. “From time to time, we produce unique commemorative cans for fans and for brand influencers, like Dylan Mulvaney. This commemorative can was a gift to celebrate a personal milestone and is not for sale to the general public.” The Sun reached out to Anheuser-Busch but has not heard back.This is not the first time a major brand has faced backlash for adopting a transgender woman as a brand ambassador. In February, Hershey’s came under fire for including a transgender woman as one of its five women to celebrate in its campaign for International Women’s Day in Canada. There were also calls to boycott Tampax in 2020 after the company tweeted, “Fact: Not all women have periods. Also a fact: Not all people with periods are women. Let’s celebrate the diversity of all people who bleed.”The culture war over trans rights has heated up in recent months. The murders in Nashville last week of three children and three adults at a Christian school by a 28-year-old shooter who identified as transgender brought the rhetoric to a boiling point.The ACLU says it is tracking “451 anti-LGBTQ bills in the U.S.” The legislation ranges from a bill to limit transgender affirming care and surgeries for minors to bills regarding transgender participation in women’s sports, bathroom policies, drag shows, and pronouns. On Tuesday, a Kansas bill that would prohibit transgender people from using the bathroom of their gender identity and bar them from changing the gender on their driver’s licenses passed the GOP-controlled legislature with enough support to overturn the Democratic governor’s likely veto. Thirty states have already passed or are considering legislation that would restrict or ban gender affirming care for minors.The ACLU lumps all these bills together as “anti-trans,” though the particulars vary, and many who support transgender rights for adults, for example, don’t support transitions for children. Likewise, barring trans women from female sports is a dividing issue that doesn’t fit neatly into the left-right paradigm. Ms. Mulvaney is a divisive figure whom the left has embraced and the right mocks for her over-the-top caricature of how a woman acts and sounds. In October, Ms. Mulvaney sat down with President Biden at the White House to discuss trans rights. Vice President Harris sent Ms. Mulvaney a letter in March congratulating the TikTok star on her first year of transition. “I send you my warmest greetings as you celebrate your 365th day of living authentically,” Ms. Harris wrote.At a pool hall at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where Bud Light flows on tap and workers from a nearby Navy shipyard come to play, nobody over 40 years of age knew about the Dylan Mulvaney-Bud Light controversy. Dennis Grobe, a 66-year-old retired shipyard worker with a Bud Light in hand, tells the Sun he isn’t concerned about with whom the beer company partners. He likes his beer and that’s that.Bud Light is America’s bestselling beer. It is synonymous with football and college frat parties. That’s not exactly the Dylan Mulvaney fan base. Yet Bud Light needs to attract the next generation of beer drinkers. Twenty percent of Gen Z adults identify as LGBT, according to Gallup That’s the generation who watches TikTok and follows Ms. Mulvaney.“Putting a trans woman’s face on a package of Bud Light is like putting Donald Trump’s face on a package of quinoa,” a 30-year-old self-described “raging lesbian,” Coral Shields, tells the Sun. At the pool hall, she and her friends were not drinking Bud Light, but they say “stirring the pot” is a good marketing strategy. “When is the last time you had a conversation about Bud Light?” Ms. Shields says. “Exactly.”

Online Right Rages Over Bud Light’s Embrace of Transgender Influencer, but Real World Yawns

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