Ken Howard, LCSW, a psychotherapist who specializ therapy wh gay men, wr about gay men and alhol, and overg problems wh drkg.
Contents:
- GAY MEN AND ALHOL: THE RELATNSHIP WH THE BOTTLE
- CANNED CKTAIL ‘GAY WATER’ AIMS TO SH ON BUD LIGHT’S DYLAN MULVANEY DISASTER
- A DRK FOR THE COMMUNY - GAY WATER
- WHAT MAK THIS BEER GAY?
- GAY WATER, A NEW NNED CKTAIL, WANTS TO BE THE ANTI-BUD LIGHT
- GAY, FABULO, AND DRKG MYSELF TO DEATH
- GAY WATER BOTTL
GAY MEN AND ALHOL: THE RELATNSHIP WH THE BOTTLE
* gay bottle drinking *
In a sea of nned cktails, Gay Water wants to stand out.
In other words, where Bud Light has buckled unr prsure as bigotry grows agast the LGBTQ+ muny, Gay Water’s creator Spencer Hodson wants his new boozy brand to be the anthis of that.
“The key issue that Bud Light tapped to was the fact that they didn’t unrstand their re dience and know enough about them,” Hodson, a gay man, told CNN about the ntroversy that began when the Anhser-Bch beer brand sent fluencer Dylan Mulvaney a n of beer. Gay Water, however, is out and proud. The nned cktail is named after a lloquialism given to the popular mixed drk (vodka and soda) orred at bars by the gay muny.
CANNED CKTAIL ‘GAY WATER’ AIMS TO SH ON BUD LIGHT’S DYLAN MULVANEY DISASTER
It’s a simple proposn: A craft beer, owned by a gay uple and marketed to the LGBT muny. * gay bottle drinking *
“Puttg a product wh the word gay the tle is reprentatn self,” which he hop reclaims the word om the negativy ’s sometim associated wh. He thought of creatg Gay Water about a year ago while on a vatn wh his iend that had got a job wh the beverage dtry. The two chatted about the limed amount of gay people wh , and wh Hodson burnt out om his tradnal day job tech, started the nned cktail.
Hodson built up a strong social media followg on TikTok and Instagram durg Covid-19 and is g some of the money om that (as well as om iends and fay) to help fund Gay Water.
A DRK FOR THE COMMUNY - GAY WATER
Lnchg Thursday is a brightly lored nned vodka and soda beverage lled Gay Water that proudly displays who ’s for, stead of backg off om support for the LGBTQ+ muny like Bud Light did. * gay bottle drinking *
“Gay is an umbrella term and the ia behd the brand is to be as clive as possible, which means we want alli, we want straight people to be part of this muny we’re buildg.”. For now, Gay Water is sold largely onle (wh a few retailers) and four sugar-ee flavors — watermelon, lime, peach and grapeu — at lnch. Gay Water might not have the ep pockets pared to s petors, like Whe Claw, but “even at small sle, pani of many siz are havg succs makg spir-based seltzers and premixed cktails,” Bryan Roth, an analyst for Feel Goods Company and edor of the alhol beverage newsletter, Sightl+, told CNN.
“There’s lots of space the spir-based seltzer tegory which Gay Water n play, pecially if the brand n offer a cultural or emotnal nnectn that will feel more excg than the prospect of another peapple-flavored vodka seltzer om natnal or ternatnal rporatns,” Roth said.
WHAT MAK THIS BEER GAY?
Of urse, other drks e the word “gay,” too, cludg Gay Beer and So Gay Rosé, Hodson noted, which are also tryg to reach the queer muny and offer them an alternative the straight-domated space.
Today I wanted to wre about gay men and alhol, and what I ll their “relatnship” wh the bottle. Sometim I liken the bottle to “the mistrs” we’re havg an affair wh (I e this term even wh gay men, even though ’s a ltle heterosexist). An entreprenr lnched a nned cktail this week lled “Gay Water” that’s aimed at LGBTQ drkers — and said he’s lookg to palize on Bud Light’s mistak.
But “Gay Water” — which adopts a moniker the gay muny has long given to the simple vodka and soda cktail — has been spired by the dtup to bee even bolr about the dience ’s targetg, founr and CEO Spencer Hodson told The Post.
GAY WATER, A NEW NNED CKTAIL, WANTS TO BE THE ANTI-BUD LIGHT
Gay Water — a nned cktail brand that plays on the gay muny’s lloquialism for the vodka-and-soda mixed drk — lnched on Wednday and promis to unrstand s dience better than Bud Light. The 30-year-old Hodson said he is g suggtive — albe playful — msagg and imagery Gay Water’s social media and webse, cludg a provotive nod to the 12-ounce n’s 6.
“Our missn is to -stigmatize the word ‘gay’ and start to create reprentatn spac that tradnally don’t have queer-owned products, let alone products wh the word ‘gay’ their tle, ” Hodson told The Post. “When was the last time you saw the word gay at a rtrant, bar, liquor store, or grocery store? The word ‘gay’ origally was fed as happy, and we’re hopg to remd folks of that by beg prent, ” he add.
GAY, FABULO, AND DRKG MYSELF TO DEATH
Founr Spencer Hodson, a gay man, says the brand is about reclaimg the word “gay” as a word that “jt means happy. Gay Water’s brandg is full of playful, suggtive msagg.
“Part of the pot of lnchg outsi of Pri month is to rerce the msage that Gay Water is here to make the LGBTQ+ muny more visible 365 days a year, not jt a sgle month, ” he said. A participant opens a bottle wh champagne at the 40th Christopher Street Day gay pri march on July 28, 2018, Berl, Germany.
SuperGay Spirs.
GAY WATER BOTTL
(Image via SuperGay/Twter). SuperGay Spirs is a pany that produc vodka, and much like s name suggts, supports the LGBTQ+ muny all year long. SuperGay is handcrafted upstate New York g anic rn and pure sprg water.
SuperGay’s master distiller veloped the brand’s recipe, which clus filterg the water through activated nut charal to purify the vodka.
SuperGay Spirs do everythg by hand to have ntrol over the qualy of the vodka every step of the way. SuperGay vodka retails for $38 and n be purchased here.