Trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney ‘having trouble sleeping’ after relentless Bud Light backlash
Dylan Mulvaney.(Chelsea Guglielmino/Getty Images)
TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney has admitted that she’s having trouble sleeping after going through weeks of anti-trans backlash to a promotion she did with Bud Light.
Last month, the beer brand sparked intense criticism after sending Mulvaney a personalised can to help celebrate 365 days of her public transition. The following weeks saw people smashing Bud Light in stores, musician Kid Rock shooting cans with an assault weapon and bars refusing to sell the brew due to religious beliefs.
The backlash became so out of proportion that even controversial podcast host Joe Rogan stepped in to defend Mulvaney, asking why people “give a f**k”.
While the hate rumbles on, with right-wingers urging boycotts of other brands that Mulvaney has worked with, the 26-year-old influencer revealed her sleep problems.
During an appearance on the Dear Schuyler podcast, Mulvaney said she’s trying to hold “grace” for people targeting the LGBTQ+ community, explaining that she hopes they will be able to see the “beauty… humanity [and] importance of identity”.
In a separate podcast appearance on Chelsea Handler’s podcast Dear Chelsea, Dylan Mulvaney said that being misgendered by the media “breaks my heart”.
She added: “These haters, they really wore me down for a second. Dysphoria, truly, it feels like a darkness that washes over you and it is those moments of being misgendered… that made me so sad.
“It’s sad that there are still so many people trying to use this really beautiful journey against me and twisting my words and taking things out of context. But, at the end of the day, I’m happier than I ever have been… I can’t imagine going back to that other person. It breaks my heart to think about it.”
The marketing vice-president of Bud Light has previously insisted that featuring LGBTQ+ people in its adverts is good for business, and that more-inclusive adverts are the future of the brand.
Alissa Heinerscheid said: “Bud Light was a brand of ‘fratty’, kind of out-of-touch humour, and it was really important we had another approach. It means inclusivity, shifting the tone. It means having a campaign that’s truly inclusive and feels lighter and brighter and different, and appeals to women and men.”
Nike, a brand that Dylan Mulvaney has also worked with, responded to anti-LGBTQ+ comments on its Instagram, by telling trans people: “You are an essential component to the success of your community. Hate speech, bullying, or other behaviours that are not in the spirit of a diverse and inclusive community, will be deleted.”
