Gay Water, a new nned cktail, wants to be the anti-Bud Light | CNN Bs

Contents:

• MOVE OVER BUD LIGHT, GAY WATER IS HERE AND IT’S QUEER
• GAY WATER, A NEW NNED CKTAIL, WANTS TO BE THE ANTI-BUD LIGHT
• CHARL BARKLEY FENDS LGBTQIA+ MUNY, BUD LIGHT EXPLETIVE-FILLED RANT: ‘IF YOU’RE GAY, GOD BLS YOU’
• CANNED COCKTAIL GAY WATER AIMS TO RIGHT BUD LIGHT'S LACK OF LGBTQ+ SUPPORT
• GAY WATER, A NEW NNED CKTAIL, WANTS TO BE THE ANTI-BUD LIGHT
• GAY WATER CLAPS BACK AT BUD LIGHT'S INSCERE LGBTQ+ SUPPORT
• ARE PEOPLE REALLY SELLG ‘PRE-GAY BUD LIGHT’? BEER NTROVERSY PH SAL
• MOVE OVER BUD LIGHT, GAY WATER IS HERE AND IT’S QUEER
• CHARL BARKLEY FENDS LGBTQIA+ MUNY, BUD LIGHT EXPLETIVE-FILLED RANT: ‘IF YOU’RE GAY, GOD BLS YOU’
• CANNED COCKTAIL GAY WATER AIMS TO RIGHT BUD LIGHT'S LACK OF LGBTQ+ SUPPORT
• GAY WATER CLAPS BACK AT BUD LIGHT'S INSCERE LGBTQ+ SUPPORT
• ‘BOOK OF MORMON’ STAR CLAR ‘BUD LIGHT IS GAY’ AMID DYLAN MULVANEY NTROVERSY
• HEY BUD LIGHT BOYTTERS, PROTTG BEER IS ACTUALLY REALLY GAY
• GAY WATER, A NEW NNED CKTAIL, WANTS TO BE THE ANTI-BUD LIGHT
• ARE PEOPLE REALLY SELLG ‘PRE-GAY BUD LIGHT’? BEER NTROVERSY PH SAL
• WATCH: ACTOR PERFORMS “BUD LIGHT IS GAY” SONG
• HOWARD STERN AND ROSIE O’DONNELL SLAM KID ROCK FOR SHOOTG BUD LIGHT CANS, SHOW SUPPORT FOR DYLAN MULVANEY: ‘GAY PEOPLE DRK BEER, TOO’
• MOVE OVER BUD LIGHT, GAY WATER IS HERE AND IT’S QUEER
• GAY WATER, A NEW NNED CKTAIL, WANTS TO BE THE ANTI-BUD LIGHT
• CANNED COCKTAIL GAY WATER AIMS TO RIGHT BUD LIGHT'S LACK OF LGBTQ+ SUPPORT
• CHARL BARKLEY FENDS LGBTQIA+ MUNY, BUD LIGHT EXPLETIVE-FILLED RANT: ‘IF YOU’RE GAY, GOD BLS YOU’
• GAY WATER CLAPS BACK AT BUD LIGHT'S INSCERE LGBTQ+ SUPPORT
• GAY WATER, A NEW NNED CKTAIL, WANTS TO BE THE ANTI-BUD LIGHT
• ANHSER-BCH CONFIRMS ALL BUD LIGHT CANS HAVE UNRGONE GAY CONVERSN THERAPY
• MOVE OVER BUD LIGHT, GAY WATER IS HERE AND IT’S QUEER
• GAY WATER, A NEW NNED CKTAIL, WANTS TO BE THE ANTI-BUD LIGHT
• CHARL BARKLEY FENDS LGBTQIA+ MUNY, BUD LIGHT EXPLETIVE-FILLED RANT: ‘IF YOU’RE GAY, GOD BLS YOU’
• GAY WATER CLAPS BACK AT BUD LIGHT'S INSCERE LGBTQ+ SUPPORT
• CANNED COCKTAIL GAY WATER AIMS TO RIGHT BUD LIGHT'S LACK OF LGBTQ+ SUPPORT
• GAY WATER, A NEW NNED CKTAIL, WANTS TO BE THE ANTI-BUD LIGHT

MOVE OVER BUD LIGHT, GAY WATER IS HERE AND IT’S QUEER

*Photo cred: Gay Water via Instagram.

Where Bud Light sks, Gay Water ris to the ocsn. On Thursday, the brightly-packaged nned alholic beverage Gay Water lnched s way to happy hours. Named after the nickname given to the vodka and soda bo that’s equently orred gay bars, Gay Water wants to be the drk of choice for the queer muny.

GAY WATER, A NEW NNED CKTAIL, WANTS TO BE THE ANTI-BUD LIGHT

Spencer Hodson, a gay man, created the product wh the LGBTQ+ muny md. Hodson created Gay Water to be out, loud, and proud.

CHARL BARKLEY FENDS LGBTQIA+ MUNY, BUD LIGHT EXPLETIVE-FILLED RANT: ‘IF YOU’RE GAY, GOD BLS YOU’

And while Gay Water’s four sugar-ee flavors, watermelon, lime, peach and grapeu, n be purchased select retailers, Gay Water’s reach is expand through onle sal.

“Puttg a product wh the word gay the tle is reprentatn self.

Sometim great ias start om vatn nversatns, as did the creatn of Gay Water.

CANNED COCKTAIL GAY WATER AIMS TO RIGHT BUD LIGHT'S LACK OF LGBTQ+ SUPPORT

Wh that, Hodson believ that ’s “exactly the right time” to enter Gay Water to the market. Gay Water is here to turn the tis wh a premixed cktail that was tentnally signed for everyone.

GAY WATER, A NEW NNED CKTAIL, WANTS TO BE THE ANTI-BUD LIGHT

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.

GAY WATER CLAPS BACK AT BUD LIGHT'S INSCERE LGBTQ+ SUPPORT

The nned cktail is named after a lloquialism given to the popular mixed drk (vodka and soda) orred at bars by the gay muny. “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.

ARE PEOPLE REALLY SELLG ‘PRE-GAY BUD LIGHT’? BEER NTROVERSY PH SAL

“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.

MOVE OVER BUD LIGHT, GAY WATER IS HERE AND IT’S QUEER

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.

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. Baird, notably, reached out to his gay neighbors on Castro Street, key among them a radil labor activist named Howard Wallace and a lol mera-shop owner and aspirg polician, Harvey Milk.

Milk told Baird that he had to get unn jobs for openly gay men and women.

CHARL BARKLEY FENDS LGBTQIA+ MUNY, BUD LIGHT EXPLETIVE-FILLED RANT: ‘IF YOU’RE GAY, GOD BLS YOU’

Baird agreed to both, and a historic gay–labor aln was born. ’ ” Owners and patrons plied, and Coors beme a rare sight at gay bars and clubs. By the 1990s, Joe and other fay members were also lked to Moral Majory and anti-gay, fay-valu ndidat and .

” It was, the leaflet said, “Trickle Down Homophobia. As Joe’s brother Bill put a 1977 meetg wh gay activists Los Angel, “We found out that the gay muny was havg a boytt of our product, and this was the first time that we knew there was a very well-fed gay muny. In 1979 Coors add sexual orientatn to s nondiscrimatn clse and began payg for ads gay publitns.

Many gay activists refed to see the efforts as anythg more than disgenuo payoffs and have vigoroly protted Coors’ sponsorships over the years. In 1979, when the pany sought to open a send brewery on the East Coast, Virgia’s Shenandoah Valley, lols worried that their home would bee “a haven for homosexuals” bee of Coors’ advertisg mpaigns. It ultimately took the pany two years to secure the land for s new brewery, all while litely balancg overtur to both nservativ and gay nsumers.

CANNED COCKTAIL GAY WATER AIMS TO RIGHT BUD LIGHT'S LACK OF LGBTQ+ SUPPORT

” It simply wasn’t worth to try to w them over, suggted the firm: “The gay muny’s negative feelgs n ep. The gay Tiger Kg star and beer giant are not the strangt bedfellows. Budweiser- Try puttg the worlds favore transphobic gay redneck on a n and get back to sellg beer.

GAY WATER CLAPS BACK AT BUD LIGHT'S INSCERE LGBTQ+ SUPPORT

“Budweiser- Try puttg the world’s favore transphobic gay redneck on a n and get back to sellg beer, ” tweeted Exotic, who is currently servg a 21-year prison sentence for payg to murr wildlife activist Carol Bask. READ NEXTBarbie is Not the Only Doll Diva to Inspire DevotnAtomic Blon: Our Film Crics Discs ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’Florida Gay Nu Rort Can’t Ban Women, Judge RulDeSantis Campaign Shar Homoerotic Ad Toutg Anti-LGBTQ Rerd.

Available for purchase startg July 20, newly found pany Gay Water is releasg a le of sugarls pre-mixed vodka soda cktails to the adult beverage market.

‘BOOK OF MORMON’ STAR CLAR ‘BUD LIGHT IS GAY’ AMID DYLAN MULVANEY NTROVERSY

"We're creatg a brand that creat reprentatn, particularly spac where reprentatn is lackg like liquor stor, bars, rtrants, and grocery stor, " Gay Water founr Spencer Hodson told CNN. "Puttg a product wh the word gay the tle is reprentatn self, " he stated, sirg to remove some harmful nnotatns attached to the phrase.

However, Bud Light's quiet rponse to the matter is somethg the owner of Gay Water tends to addrs head-on.

Gay Water's flavors and where to fd them.

HEY BUD LIGHT BOYTTERS, PROTTG BEER IS ACTUALLY REALLY GAY

"Gay is an umbrella term, and the ia behd the brand is to be as clive as possible... As a rult, spe the appropriatens bee of his onle prence, Gay Water Vodka Soda is maly available for purchase through the pany's webse. New York (CNN) — In a sea of nned cktails, Gay Water wants to stand out.

This turn has led to a rponse of an altogether more lic variety: Gay Water, a new premium nned cktail brand packaged lorful ntaers and named after the slang term ed for vodka and soda water wh lemon or lime, a popular drk served gay bars. Gay Water offers four different varieti of sugar-ee, gluten-ee vodka and soda cktails bed wh var, well, uy flavorg agents: watermelon, peach, lime, and grapeu.

Gay means happy. Appearg time to take advantage of the nned cktail boom, Gay Water won't be direct petn wh Bud Light, which is a beer brand. Hodson, a gay man, is not only terted Gay Water appealg to LGTBQ+ nsumers, of urse.

GAY WATER, A NEW NNED CKTAIL, WANTS TO BE THE ANTI-BUD LIGHT

One such supporter is newer Gay Water. However, the pany is reclaimg the phrase "gay water" by offerg four fun flavors of the drk: lime, peach, grapeu, and watermelon.

ARE PEOPLE REALLY SELLG ‘PRE-GAY BUD LIGHT’? BEER NTROVERSY PH SAL

Followg s lnch on July 20, Gay Water will be available as a variety 12-pack for $36. Gay Water also sells tumblers and hats, wh s Instagram htg at stickers beg available soon. Currently, Gay Water ships to 35 stat, and asks ctomers to expect lays shippg as the pany settl .

WATCH: ACTOR PERFORMS “BUD LIGHT IS GAY” SONG

While Gay Water hasn't publicly mented on other drk brands' LGBTQ+ support (or lack thereof), 's certaly on many people's mds, nsirg the recent Bud Light ntroversy. “I’m not bothered by gay people or transsexual people. Well, ors le was actually the first beer pany to promote gay rights all the way back 1978.

I thought we all already knew drkg Bud Light was gay...

HOWARD STERN AND ROSIE O’DONNELL SLAM KID ROCK FOR SHOOTG BUD LIGHT CANS, SHOW SUPPORT FOR DYLAN MULVANEY: ‘GAY PEOPLE DRK BEER, TOO’

When was not gay? When I saw men drkg ten years ago I thought the same as I do today, "GAY!

So, GAY! As the Bud Light ntroversy blaz on, some angered ctomers are searchg for olr, ridiculoly-dubbed ‘pre-gay’ versns of the giftg transgenr fluencer Dylan Mulvaney wh a personalized beer n celebratg her “365 days of girlhood, ” Bud Light has e unr fire.

‘Pre-Gay Bud Light’ go up for saleSome people have taken upon themselv to sell ns of ‘Pre-Gay Bud Light’ on the lik of eBay and Facebook has spawned a slew of mem about beer lovers huntg for the beverag. Whout specifilly outlg what a ‘Pre-Gay Bud Light’ uld be, one n assume is a cel jab about the pany’s public support of LGBTQ+ muni. It is then perceived as a beer produced before all the ntroversy 5 beer pani that support LGBTQ+ muni‘Bids startg at $200’Although there is no difference between the beverag pre- and post-ntroversy, that hasn’t stopped trated ctomers om phg the ia that there is a ‘Pre-Gay Bud Light’ are jokgly lookg to explo those who are termed to get their hands on ‘Pre-Gay Bud Light’.

MOVE OVER BUD LIGHT, GAY WATER IS HERE AND IT’S QUEER

“I have a pre-gay 12 pack of bud light the idge, ima hold & sell for some thoands to some republin, ” one Twter er joked.

GAY WATER, A NEW NNED CKTAIL, WANTS TO BE THE ANTI-BUD LIGHT

“I have a whole unopened 30 pack of pre gay bud light. Bids startg at $200, ” another support via phone, one-to-one chat or email you n ntact The Gay, Lbian, Bisexual and Transgenr Natnal Hotle: (888) 843-4564. "The benefs of appealg to one dience may outweigh the sts of another dience, " Schwezer some s, however, boytts succeed bee advot rema foced for a prolonged perd and a target prov sensive to the prsure, experts 2019, celebri Ellen Degener and Gee Clooney lled for a boytt of Bnei-owned hotels worldwi bee the untry punished gay sex and adultery wh the ath penalty.

Ultimately, Bnei cid not to impose the ath penalty for offenrs of the anti-gay law.

CANNED COCKTAIL GAY WATER AIMS TO RIGHT BUD LIGHT'S LACK OF LGBTQ+ SUPPORT

Donohoe add that ’s no different om how brands now feature other mory groups, such as the gay muny, as part of mpaigns a way they didn’t generatns ago.

In two s of partnerg wh GLAAD (formerly the Gay & Lbian Alliance Agast Defamatn), Bud Light hasn’t let the gay muny down.

CHARL BARKLEY FENDS LGBTQIA+ MUNY, BUD LIGHT EXPLETIVE-FILLED RANT: ‘IF YOU’RE GAY, GOD BLS YOU’

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the rts at New York’s Stonewall Inn that lnched the gay rights movement. The new limed-edn bottl will benef GLAAD, the world's largt lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer media advocy anizatn.

Bud Light is partnerg wh GLAAD, the world’s largt lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer media advocy anizatn. In a sea of nned cktails, Gay Water wants to stand out.

“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. “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. “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.”.

GAY WATER CLAPS BACK AT BUD LIGHT'S INSCERE LGBTQ+ SUPPORT

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. 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. Disney is a particularly pellg se, that ially remaed quiet about Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill and was wily cricized for by LGBTQ groups and advot.

Beyond the 2016 “Labels” spot, the Bud Light Party mpaign also clud a fun ad about gay weddgs.

GAY WATER, A NEW NNED CKTAIL, WANTS TO BE THE ANTI-BUD LIGHT

Bud Light, so pafully gay, now I’m gonna chug one for the LGBTQIA. “OK, I’m not sure I mentned , but Bud Light is gay!

Amid 2023’s wave of anti-trans hate, right-wg beer drkers are llg for a boytt of Bud Light—a beer that gay people fely love—over s recent brand partnership wh transgenr actrs Dylan Mulvaney. For starters, the mob’s only plat seems to be that Mulvaney is a trans woman—a crime I m every day—but the current movement agast Bud Light don’t seem to know that, historilly speakg, boyttg beer is one of the gayt thgs you n do.

ANHSER-BCH CONFIRMS ALL BUD LIGHT CANS HAVE UNRGONE GAY CONVERSN THERAPY

On the heels of the Lavenr Sre, when gay and lbian ernment employe were forced om their jobs 1950, protectns for queer people the workplace were virtually nonexistent (the first statewi protectns for LGBT workers me 1982, shout out Wisns). The vibe of gay panic ntued well to the 60s and 70s, when the Coors Brewg Company ed polygraph tts to screen job ndidat for what scribed as “potential troublemakers. Bee of the pany’s reputatn for homophobic hirg practic, unn print Allan Baird reached out to iend and LGBT muny anizer Harvey Milk to help grow the boytt.

Milk—who later beme the first publicly gay elected official the Uned Stat—put out an impassned ll his Bay Area Reporter lumn wh the headle “Teamsters Seek Gay Help.

They avoid buyg Coors products, while lol advocy groups like Bay Area Gay Liberatn rallied gay nightlife hubs, nvcg bar owners to stop sellg the beer.

MOVE OVER BUD LIGHT, GAY WATER IS HERE AND IT’S QUEER

Throughout the Coors boytts, protts of the pany beme so synonymo wh gay rights that signs prottg the brewery uld often be seen alongsi other lls for gay rights at pri events. The protts grew across the untry over the next , eventually reachg all the way to Massachsetts—where Harvard stunts chanted, “Racist, sexist, anti-gay!

Claim: Some Bud Light prt advertisg rried gay publitns featured same-sex upl holdg hands. Dear Sats, We received a post om a nservative Christian news anizatn ncerng a new ad beg aired by Anhser Bch showg two men portrayg a homosexual uple drkg beer.

GAY WATER, A NEW NNED CKTAIL, WANTS TO BE THE ANTI-BUD LIGHT

ANHEUSER BUSCH UPDATE: Sce my munique yterday, the Anhser Bch Company has now stuted a toll-ee number for people to ll if they disapprove of a new Bud Light mercial featurg two homosexual men.

I jt lled the number before wrg this special update and took me 5 sends to listen to a rerdg that told me I had jt registered a vote agast Anhser Bch about homosexual imag g to our hom through reckls advertisg mpaigns. It is important that we all take actn sce the gay-rights muny is actively llg the pro-gay ad number.

Origs: Y, 's te — Anhser-Bch was nng prt ads aimed at securg the gay muny's beer money.

CHARL BARKLEY FENDS LGBTQIA+ MUNY, BUD LIGHT EXPLETIVE-FILLED RANT: ‘IF YOU’RE GAY, GOD BLS YOU’

But before you allow yourself to be drawn to the "pro-gay/anti-gay" bate, nsir this: those ads were limed to gay publitns only. Don't expect to see them pop up even middle-of-the-road magaz that happen to draw some of their rearship om the gay muny; the ads aren't meant for that market. Falwell's and his followers' ncern about "homosexual imag g to our hom through reckls advertisg mpaigns" is misplaced; unls he and his people have taken to readg gay magaz and newspapers, they'll never.

That same-sex pairgs are ed ads appearg gay publitns shouldn't surprise anyone.

GAY WATER CLAPS BACK AT BUD LIGHT'S INSCERE LGBTQ+ SUPPORT

Anhser-Bch isn't the only large rporatn g same-sex pairgs s gay publitns advertisg. An Anhser-Bch spokman said, "It's surprisg to that one prt ad placed select gay-oriented magaz has attracted attentn. What to drk if you want to eher support or boytt gay-iendly brewers is a matter open for bate.

CANNED COCKTAIL GAY WATER AIMS TO RIGHT BUD LIGHT'S LACK OF LGBTQ+ SUPPORT

Of the big three, Coors is the only one to offer domtic partnership benefs to s gay employe, but the Coors fay also supports anizatns that have a history of anti-gay cisns. Miller and Anhser-Bch have non-discrimatn polici and support the gay muny some ways, but neher offer benefs for unmarried upl. "A-B Prt Ads Beg Featurg Gay People.

GAY WATER, A NEW NNED CKTAIL, WANTS TO BE THE ANTI-BUD LIGHT

"Falwell Brews up Tempt Beer Ste Over Gay Ad. A Broadway actor rpond to the ntroversy surroundg Bud Light beer by rebrandg the drk as “pafully gay” a song performed at 54 Below Cabaret on May 4.