Dylan Mulvaney accepts woman of the year award with beautiful message for trans youth
Dylan Mulvaney at the Attitude Awards. (Getty)
Dylan Mulvaney is living her best life as the first woman to win Attitude Magazine’s Woman of the Year award.
The trans social media influencer was delighted to receive the LGBTQ+ publication’s award for her work in sharing trans joy and positivity, and delivered a powerful message of love and acceptance to trans young people at the ceremony on Wednesday (11 October).
“To the trans youth out there in America, in the UK, and beyond, I love you, I support you, stay with us,” she said while on the Attitude Awards red carpet. “You are so worthy of love and I’m so proud of you. I love ya.”
Best known for her ‘365 Days of Girlhood’ TikTok series, Mulvaney has made a career out of sharing the positivity of her life as a trans woman.
Despite the transphobic backlash she has received from bigots and far-right pundits, Mulvaney has remained unapologetic in her love for the LGBTQ+ community and life in general.
“No matter how hard I try or what I wear, or what I say, or what surgeries I get, I will never reach an acceptable version of womanhood by those hateful people’s standards,” she said while accepting her award.
“But as long as I have the queer community that sees me for my truth – I’m going to be okay.”
Dylan Mulvaney reflects on 2023: ‘Like a Black Mirror episode’
Following the year anniversary of her TikTok series, Mulvaney became the subject of an immense, international backlash over a brief sponsorship deal with the beer company Bud Light.
After posting a video to social media announcing she had received a personalised beer can from Bud Light distributor, Anheuser-Busch, far-right activists began threatening her, vandalising shops selling the beer, and shooting packs of Bud Light.
After months of laying low over fears that the online abuse would get worse, Mulvaney shared a TikTok video in which she shamed the beer company, who dropped her as a sponsor following the backlash.
“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,” she said.
“I patiently waited for things to get better, but surprise, they haven’t.
“For months now, I have been scared to leave my house. I have been ridiculed in public, I have been followed, and I have felt a loneliness that I wouldn’t wish on anyone.”
Reflecting on 2023 during the awards ceremony, Mulvaney said she felt the past year was like a “Black Mirror episode” – the dystopian Charlie Brooker series.
“But tonight feels like a rom-com in the early 2000s and we’re going to party big,” she continued.
“I think there’s so much right now that is dark in the world, especially around transness, but sometimes we have to celebrate.”
Other Attitude Awards recipients included sports commentator Alex Scott, RuPaul’s Drag Race winner and trans trailblazer Sasha Colby, and comedian Joe Lycett.
