This article was originally published by Them.
Dylan Mulvaney made her first public statements about the Bud Light fiasco, saying the beer company did nothing to defend her against an avalanche of harassment from right-wingers.
“For months now I've been scared to leave my house,” Mulvaney said in a video shared on Thursday to Instagram and TikTok. “I have been ridiculed in public. I've been followed. And I have felt a loneliness that I wouldn't wish on anyone.”
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Mulvaney, who uses she/they pronouns, initially participated in a brand deal with Bud Light back in April, posting a video on Instagram to promote a giveaway. The brand sent them a one-off can with their face on it to commemorate their one year of girlhood, a nod to the TikTok series that made them internet famous. Conservative trolls immediately pounced on Mulvaney, boycotting Bud Light and even shooting up cases of the beer, simply because the company had partnered with an openly trans woman.
Although Anheuser-Busch, Bud Light’s parent company, issued a number of vague statements in favor of LGBTQ+ rights, even promising to donate money to a QTPOC small-business initiative, Mulvaney revealed that the company had not reached out to her in the wake of the controversy. Mulvaney added that she felt she should have made the video months ago, but she was scared of more backlash and wanted to wait for the controversy to cool down. But it didn’t, and she says Bud Light never reached out to her amid the firestorm.
“I'm not telling you this because I want your pity,” Mulvaney said in the video. “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 added that hiring a trans person only to abandon them in the face of hate “is worse in my opinion than not hiring a trans person at all.”
“Because it gives customers permission to be as transphobic and hateful as they want,” she said. “And the hate doesn't end with me; it has serious and grave consequences for the rest of our community.”
The influencer continued her message of solidarity by imploring followers to care about the rest of the trans community as much as they do about her. Acknowledging the fact that Pride Month is coming to a close, Mulvaney also said she was going to “celebrate being alive,” and celebrate “the trans people in my life and the ones that haven't met yet.”
“And I'm going to celebrate the fact that no matter how many 1000s of horrible messages or news anchors misgendering me or companies going silent, that I can look in the mirror and see the woman that I am and that I love being,” she said. Mulvaney ended her video by shouting out the Transgender Law Center and including a link in her bio to donate to the organization.
In a statement provided to Fox News and other media outlets, an Anheuser-Busch spokesperson said that the company remained “committed to the programs and partnerships we have forged over decades with organizations across a number of communities, including those in the LGBTQ+ community.”
“The privacy and safety of our employees and our partners is always our top priority,” the spokesperson said, making no mention Mulvaney’s allegations. “As we move forward, we will focus on what we do best — brewing great beer for everyone and earning our place in moments that matter to our consumers.”
