Transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney spoke out about the fallout from his partnership with Bud Light and criticized the brand for how it has treated him ever since.
"I built my platform on being honest with you and what I'm about to tell you might sound like old news," Mulvaney began. "But you know that feeling when you have something uncomfy sitting on your chest. Well, that's how I feel right now. So this feels like the right thing to do."
Mulvaney said one would expect that given the level of backlash, that their partnership would have been much bigger than just an Instagram ad and sending him a beer can with his face on it.
"I'm bringing it up because what transpired from that video was more bullying and transphobia than I could have ever imagined and I should have made this video months ago but I didn't," he said. "I was scared and I was scared of more backlash and I felt personally guilty for what transpired."
The trans influencer said he hoped the whole ordeal would have blown over by now but it hasn’t, and in the meantime, he’s been afraid to leave his house, has been followed, and ridiculed in public.
“I have felt a loneliness that I wouldn’t wish on anyone,” Mulvaney said.
Mulvaney also said he has waited to hear from Bud Light amid the ordeal, but that hasn’t happened.
“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,” Mulvaney said, “because it gives customers permission to be as transphobic and hateful as they want.”
He added: “And the hate doesn't end with me. It has serious and grave consequences for the rest of our community. And we're customers, too."
A spokesperson for Anheuser-Busch told The Washington Post, “The privacy and safety of our employees and our partners is always our top priority,” but did not comment on whether anyone reached out to Mulvaney privately amid the boycott.
The spokesperson also emphasized it is “committed to the programs and partnerships we have forged over decades with organizations across a number of communities, including those in the LGBTQ+ community."
Dylan Mulvaney breaks his silence following the Bud Light fiasco.
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) June 30, 2023
pic.twitter.com/mIOJYOLWLx