Dylan Mulvaney calls out anti-trans 'dehumanization'

Dylan Mulvaney is back on social media amid anti-trans backlash to Bud Light partnership

Dylan Mulvaney stands on a red carpet in a red dress and red platform boots, smiling

By Jonah ValdezStaff Writer

April 28, 2023 11:56 AM PT

After a three-week break, Dylan Mulvaney is back on social media.

The transgender activist and TikTok influencer posted a roughly three-minute video on Thursday, her first since April 5, in which she denounced the anti-trans backlash to her partnership with Bud Light.

Rather than her typical sign-on of “Day [insert number] of being a girl” — a hallmark of her “Days of Girlhood” TikTok series, in which she has shared her gender-transition journey over the past year — Mulvaney started her new video with “Day 9,610 of being a human,” adding that she would “try to leave gender out of this, since that’s how we found ourselves here.”

She acknowledged her silence online as a way to cope with the criticism that was “so far from my truth” and became “so loud that I didn’t even feel part of the conversation.” Mulvaney said she had taken the three weeks to sit “with my emotions ... not reacting,” a choice she attributed to therapy.

“I decided to take the backseat and just let them tucker themselves out,” she said, referring to commentary from conservative figures and upset Bud Light drinkers. “But then I remembered that nearly 13 million people at some point enjoyed me enough to hit the follow button on these apps and I was like, wait, wait, I want to talk to those people.”

Mulvaney shared that since growing up queer in a conservative family and in a Christian church she is accustomed to people degrading her for her identity. But what she has received in recent weeks since she posted her promotional Bud Light video has been something different.

As the hashtag #BoycottBudLight took off online and people filmed themselves pouring out bottles of the beer, Kid Rock posted a video of himself shooting up a stack of Bud Light cases. Country music star Travis Tritt then said on Twitter that he would no longer request Anheuser-Busch products in his tour hospitality rider. Some Republican officials, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, said they no longer supported the brand and backed consumers in doing the same. Budweiser factories started to receive bomb threats, which drew condemnation from the Biden administration.

“It’s OK to be frustrated with someone or confused,” Mulvaney said. “But what I’m struggling to understand is the need to dehumanize and to be cruel. I just I don’t think that’s right, you know dehumanization has never fixed anything in history ever.”

Anheuser-Busch initially defended its partnership with Mulvaney, saying that the company “works with hundreds of influencers across our brands as one of many ways to authentically connect with audiences across various demographics.”

Yet as sales volume for Bud Light tumbled 21% in the week that ended April 15, Anheuser-Busch placed two of its marketing executives on leave. Its chief executive, Brendan Whitworth, issued a public statement, saying, “We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people. We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer.”

In Thursday’s video, Mulvaney, who studied musical theater in college and landed a role in the Broadway musical “The Book of Mormon,” committed to continuing to post content and “getting back to making people laugh and to never stop learning and going forward.

“I want to share parts of myself on here that have nothing to do with my identity, and I’m hoping those parts will still be exciting to you and will be enough,” she said.

“And to those of you who support me and choose to see my humanity,” Mulvaney added, “even if you don’t fully understand or relate to me, thank you.”

Times staff writer Alexandra E. Petri contributed to this report.