Dylan Mulvaney, the controversial trans influencer amid the recent controversy surrounding beer giant Anheuser-Busch, has something to get off her chest.
The TikTok star posted a lengthy video to Instagram on Thursday with a slew of new details about the personal and professional impacts of the recent smear campaign against her and the company, which sparked backlash earlier this year after it sent her a promotional box of Bud Light emblazoned with a graphic. her face.
She said the whole incident started when she made a “branding deal with a company I loved” to celebrate March Madness and her “365th day of womanhood” — but things immediately turned sour after her single video sparked one of the worst cases of rightness. – Wing hysterics in recent memory.
“It must have been a slow news week because the way that ad was blown up, you’d think I was on a billboard or in a TV commercial or whatever major thing,” Mulvaney said. “But no, it was just an Instagram video.”
Immediately after the video, prominent figures on the far right called for a boycott of beer – while a number of others took more extreme measures. Led by musician Kid Rock, more than a few conservatives online have posted videos of themselves shooting Bud Lite cases with assault rifles, in apparent protest of Anheuser-Busch’s young partnership with a trans.
Mulvaney said in her video on Thursday that she used to have her personal gifted caddy around her house, but realized she had to “protect” it and “hide it so well” that she could no longer find it. Once she does, she jokes that the canister “needs to go to a museum, preferably behind bulletproof glass.”
“I’m bringing it up because what emerged from that video was more bullying and transphobic than I could ever imagine,” she said, sobbing. “I was afraid of more backlash, and I personally felt guilty for what happened, so I waited patiently for things to get better. But surprise! They really didn’t.”
“I was waiting for the brand to come to me, but they never did,” she added.
An Anheuser-Busch spokesperson told The Daily Beast in a statement that the company remains “committed to the programs and partnerships we have built over decades with organizations across a number of communities, including LGBTQ+ communities.” But the statement did not mention Mulvaney.
“The privacy and safety of our employees and partners is always our top priority,” the spokesperson wrote. “As we move forward, we will focus on what we do best – brewing great beer for everyone and earning our place in the moments that matter to consumers.”
Weeks after the anti-conversion backlash began, Anheuser-Busch was released baffled response In April, the company evaded mention of Mulvaney and vaguely claimed that it “never intended to be part of a discussion that would divide people.”
But the company has only dug a deeper hole by letting a pair of marketing executives oversee the collaboration with Mulvaney. Then Anheuser Busch was forced to desperately give away free cases of Bud Light to distributors for a “modification” after the massive hit to its sales.
It got even weirder when the Anheuser-Busch CEO completely backtracked and told investors there was no official ad campaign with Mulvaney — claiming all they’d done was send her a custom letter that wasn’t publicly available.
Then the boycotts took a 180-degree turn and gay bars began wiping Anheuser-Busch off their own shelves to show support for the trans starlet, whom they believed had been dumped by the company.
“I’ve been afraid to leave my house, I’ve been mocked in public, I’ve been stalked, I’ve felt so lonely that I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone,” Mulvaney said in a video Thursday. “I am 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, then know that it is much worse for other trans people.”
She continued, “For a company to hire a transgender person and then not publicly stand by them is worse in my opinion than not hiring a transgender person at all.”
She felt that Bud Light gave “customers permission to be as haters and haters as they want” and that the hate had “extreme and serious consequences” for the rest of the LGBTQ+ community.
Mulvaney has also repeatedly stressed that LGBT people are also clients. “I have some lesbian friends who can drink some of these haters under the table,” she joked.
“To turn a blind eye and pretend everything is fine, it’s just not an option right now. And you might say, ‘But Dylan, I don’t want to get political.’ Babe! Supporting trans people, it shouldn’t be political. Mulvaney said:” There should be nothing controversial or divisive about working with us.” “I know it is possible.”
She highlighted that caring for the LGBTQ+ community “requires much more than a donation somewhere during Pride Month.”
“Hey, it’s Pride month still. So I’m going to celebrate being alive, and I’m going to celebrate the transgender people in my life and the people I haven’t met yet,” she concluded. “And I will celebrate the fact that no matter how many thousands of horrible letters, or news anchors who get me wrong, or corporations keep silent, I can look in the mirror and see the woman that I am and that I love to be.”
“Devoted student. Bacon advocate. Beer scholar. Troublemaker. Falls down a lot. Typical coffee enthusiast.”