Canned Cocktail Gay Water Aims To Right Bud Light's Lack Of LGBTQ+ Support

On the ABC edy's 40th anniversary, Michael Montlack reflects on how he learned to be gay om a straight actor playg a straight character pretendg to be gay. * gay in company *

When you really thk about, how many products n you thk about that have ‘gay’ the tle? “gay [sic] water has always been a lloquialism for vodka soda, so surprise, that’s our re product.

However, we see ourselv as a liftyle brand here to brg back the origal fn of the word gay by puttg our products everywhere – your rtrant, your bar, your liquor store, your grocery store, and your home. ” Canned cktail ‘Gay Water’ aims to sh on Bud Light’s Dylan Mulvaney disaster — New York Post (@nypost) July 21, 2023 The pany’s founr, Spencer Hodson, told the New York Post that the backlash Bud Light suffered after s cisn to partner wh Mulvaney spir him to be more unapologetic his pro-LGBT stance.

DO BOBBY NEED TO BE OPENLY GAY STEPHEN SONDHEIM’S REVISED ‘COMPANY’?

The qutn of whether the lead character Stephen Sondheim's semal 1970 mil <em>Company</em> is gay has been hoverg over the show for years. Now, Sondheim, along wh director John Tiffany, is reworkg the show to make explicly clear.  * gay in company *

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.

THREE'S COMPANY MA ME THE GAY MAN I AM TODAY

The show was wrten for Anthony Perks, who at the last mute had to drop the list of gay actors who played "Bobby" CompanyLarry KertGee Chakiris (Natnal Tour)John BarrowmanRl ... * gay in company *

“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. “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. “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.”.

STEPHEN SONDHEIM REWORKG SEMAL 'COMPANY' TO MAKE LEAD GAY

* gay in company *

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.

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.

WHY HAVE SO MANY GAY ACTORS PLAYED THE ROLE OF "BOBBY" IN COMPANY?

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. "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.

OPENLY GAY THE BOARDROOM: WHY SO FEW LGBTQ EXECUTIV LEAD AMERI'S LARGT PANI

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.

"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.

CEOS WHO ARE OPENLY GAY

Yterday afternoon was revealed that Stephen Sondheim (along wh director John Tiffany) has reworked his classic mil edy, Company, wh a major plot twist: Bobby, the central, sgle character, who spends the urse of the show alg wh his own abily to m, is gay. ” It’s an tertg revisn, as crics have long argued that Bobby was a closeted homosexual the first place.

There’s not much the text that suggts Bobby is gay, although people have certaly wonred: why else uldn’t a handsome sgle man settle down?

“We don’t al wh gay marriage as such, but this versn lets explore the issu of mment a h way. ”Perhaps that’s why Sondheim is on board wh this openly gay productn — which will see a readg at Roundabout Theater Company this week, featurg Daniel Evans, Bobby Steggert, Michael Urie, and Alan Cummg, who will liver Joanne’s famo 11 o’clock number. It’s promisg that this Company will be actually reworked to ment, possibly, on the gay experience; while marriage is an optn, ’s not the only optn, and generatns of men who were told was not a possibily have surely seen their social and romantic sensibili affected by what mastream society saw as the norm.

12 BIGGT COMPANI WH GAY CEOS

To be homosexual surely meant somethg different 1970 than do today, too, which cric Jam Jorn poted out when he reviewed the New York Philharmonic’s all-star stagg of the mil 2011 (Neil Patrick Harris starred as Bobby) for Capal New York.

When discsg a major lyril change the song “You Can Drive a Person Crazy, ” sung by Bobby’s three jilted lovers — “I uld unrstand a person if a person was a fag” turned to “I uld unrstand a person if he happened to be gay” when Roundabout revived the show 1995 — Jorn suggts that Bobby, who very well might be homosexual, wouldn’t be seen as such bee of the many layers of stigma attached to beg queer:Back the 1960s, the nventnal wisdom was that some men had sex wh other men ocsnally, and other men maybe fantasized om time to time about same-sex actn, but none of the guys were what you would ll homosexual. A homosexual, on the other hand, was seen as a pletely different breed, a “boy the band” hairdrser or an terr signer or an opera queen wh some sort of twisted secret sire to be a woman, or at least to be treated like a woman by some big, butch (preferably workg-class) straight du. That kd of homosexual was a “fag, ” a mp joke, and a woman chasg after such a creature was obvly ridiculo, bee, the words of an early Sondheim lyric, “his troers [are] vern….

But the revisn “happened to be gay” isn’t really a joke bee ’s non-judgmental. The ia here is, y, some guys who don’t appear effemate do turn out to be gay sometim, not that there’s anythg wrong wh that. A quarter century of enlightenment reveals that gay sexualy is somewhat more plex than we first place Company a more morn ntext, then, wh openly gay characters alg wh their mment issu, seems to take away om what mak the show so nuanced and plited: now we have a new reason for Bobby’s fear of mment, and prov that the heterosexual mols for uplg no longer shape his view of marriage.

Why Have So Many Gay Actors Played The Role Of "Bobby" In Company?

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COMPANY GO FULL-ON BUD LIGHT WH ‘GAY WATER’ RELEASE