Transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney has found herself in the center of a firestorm for months now after doing one sponsored video with Bud Light.
That video ended up being a lightning rod for conservatives who want to focus on the culture war and perceived notions that transgender people are bad in some way, or even that they don’t deserve to exist.
While Mulvaney has tried to stay away from the culture war drama that cropped up around the video, she decided to speak up on Thursday about the lack of support she received from Bud Light after the controversy erupted.
Dylan Mulvaney breaks Bud Light silence: "for months now, I've been scared to leave my house. I have been ridiculed in public. I've been followed. And I have felt a loneliness I wouldn't wish on anyone." pic.twitter.com/DaHpoxRfFD
— Ari Drennen (@AriDrennen) June 29, 2023
“For a company to hire a trans person and then not publicly stand by them 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,” Mulvaney said in a TikTok video in which she claims no one at Bud Light ever reached out afterward. “And the hate doesn’t end with me.”
Mulvaney added that she’d had to deal with “more bullying and transphobia” than she “could have ever imagined.” Though she had hoped to wait until the controversy died down before replying, that doesn’t seem to be coming anytime soon.
“I should have made this video months ago, but I didn’t. And I was scared. And I was scared of more backlash and I felt personally guilty for what transpired,” she said. “So I patiently waited for things to get better. But surprise — they haven’t really. And I was waiting for the brand to reach out to me, but they never did.”
The video garnered a lot of reactions.
Wait… wait… WAIT… Bud Light NEVER reached out to Dylan Mulvaney AT ALL. Through this entire ordeal? No one from the entire company? Are they ALL sociopaths? https://t.co/Wtqb7r3PtG
— Lon Harris (@Lons) June 29, 2023
The abject cruelty of the campaign against this woman isn’t, as Dylan says, “politics.” People’s right to exist isn’t a political issue. It’s a life and death one. Nobody should be “voting” on whether she can live and to make it political is ghoulish and barbaric https://t.co/AxS38B75hN
— john r stanton (@dcbigjohn) June 29, 2023
https://twitter.com/AsterOlsen/status/1674494423949004801
This is super disheartening to hear that Bud Light ghosted her when she reached out. Left alone to survive a right wing transphobic harassment campaign. The idea that she couldn’t go outside without security due to her simply accepting a opportunity as a trans woman is maddening https://t.co/k9yefrg9ki
— Soulbunni (@soulbunni) June 29, 2023
