‘A Polil Fight Over Beer’: The 1977 Coors Beer Boytt, and the Relatnship Between Labour–Gay Allianc and LGBT Social Mobily – The MHR

Contents:

• OUT OF THE BREWG STORM: AS THE OPENLY GAY SON OF WILLIAM COORS, PATRIARCH OF THE FAMOLY NSERVATIVE FAY, STT COORS MAY BE THE BEER PANY'S BT WEAPON AGAST A 24-YEAR BOYTT. (BS).
• HEY BUD LIGHT BOYTTERS, PROTTG BEER IS ACTUALLY REALLY GAY
• AT COORS, A BREWING DILEMMA OVER GAY RIGHTS
• ‘A POLIL FIGHT OVER BEER’: THE 1977 COORS BEER BOYTT, AND THE RELATNSHIP BETWEEN LABOUR–GAY ALLIANC AND LGBT SOCIAL MOBILY

OUT OF THE BREWG STORM: AS THE OPENLY GAY SON OF WILLIAM COORS, PATRIARCH OF THE FAMOLY NSERVATIVE FAY, STT COORS MAY BE THE BEER PANY'S BT WEAPON AGAST A 24-YEAR BOYTT. (BS).

'” Coors Light: “The f*** you are, ” wh pictur of both Bud Light’s special Pri edn and Coors Light’s history of backg the LGBTQ+ media advocy anizatn GLAAD has scribed Coors as “among the most progrsive for s employee polici toward gays” and noted that the pany has been advertisg gay papers sce the also claims to be the first brewer to adopt a non-discrimatn policy on sexual orientatn back Irony of Boyttg Bud LightSome people are tellg others to stop drkg Bud Light and start drkg Coors Light bee they thk Bud Light supports transgenr rights. The stggle agast Coors Beer, embodied the Coors Beer Boytt that began 1977 and ntued through the Reagan years and beyond, is an important example of workg class uny that took up the banner of LGBTQ rights through an unshakable alliance of gay activists and anizatns, labor unns, immigrant rights groups and other anti-racist sectors, settg the basis for the uny that the movements share today. But perhaps, Kight was bt known his role for lkg the LGBTQ rights movement at the time wh the larger people’s unter offensive agast the right-wg, when he lled a powerful monstratn at Outft, a gay and lbian film ftival, 1977, after anizers for the LGBTQ social event accepted fundg om Coors Beer.

HEY BUD LIGHT BOYTTERS, PROTTG BEER IS ACTUALLY REALLY GAY

Smh brought the Coors Boytt to Harvey Milk’s attentn, who ed his posn as an openly gay elected official to ph forward the labor/LGBTQ/immigrant alliance that was formg the Bay Area at the time through the ancy of the Coors Boytt. There were many others the LGBTQ movement who played key rol, such as Howard Wallace, an openly gay Teamster who helped tablish the the labor-LGBTQ alliance; and of urse, and the untold number of rank and file muny members who would not support any tablishment that served Coors Beer or any of their products. 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.

AT COORS, A BREWING DILEMMA OVER GAY RIGHTS

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. 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.

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. 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. 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.

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.

‘A POLIL FIGHT OVER BEER’: THE 1977 COORS BEER BOYTT, AND THE RELATNSHIP BETWEEN LABOUR–GAY ALLIANC AND LGBT SOCIAL MOBILY

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. LGBTQ+ media advocy anizatn GLAAD scribed Coors as "among the most progrsive for s employee polici toward gays" and had been advertisg gay publitns sce the has claimed was the first brewer to troduce a non-discrimatn policy on sexual orientatn 1975.

Weathers and his ilk might be surprised to learn that boyttg a beer brand bee of ethil disagreements, they’re followg the footsteps of gay Jewish lear Harvey Milk. There is still bad will agast Coors throughout the gay and progrsive muny, and the pany has been workg sce 1997 to attempt to repair the damage and urt the LGBTQ+ market. It brought together, once aga, groups that had always opposed Coors’s hirg and unn-btg practic, cludg femists, Hispanos, Ain Amerins, and members of the LGBT muny – the last specifilly objected to Coors specifilly screeng for homosexualy durg s hirg procs.

Is n by a fay that has helped fund a nservative backlash agast gay rights, but has bee one of the first pani the untry to extend health benefs to the partners of s homosexual employe. It also shows, spe the strong disda still felt for Coors by many homosexuals, how far the gay rights movement has e wng rporate benefs many gays and lbians see as a big step toward full marriage rights for same-sex upl. Coors's board of directors voted unanimoly May to extend full domtic partner benefs to s gay and lbian employe, as had earlier done for unmarried heterosexual employe livg wh a person of the oppose sex.