Hey Bud Light Boytters, Prottg Beer Is Actually Really Gay | Bon Appét

Contents:

• HEY BUD LIGHT BOYTTERS, PROTTG BEER IS ACTUALLY REALLY GAY
• NEW ‘GAY WATER’ LOOKS TO AVOID BUD LIGHT DISASTER
• RON DESANTIS CONSIRS SUG BUD LIGHT OVER ANTI-GAY BOYTTS BEE WHY NOT?

HEY BUD LIGHT BOYTTERS, PROTTG BEER IS ACTUALLY REALLY GAY

In two s of partnerg wh GLAAD (formerly the Gay & Lbian Alliance Agast Defamatn), Bud Light hasn’t let the gay muny down. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the rts at New York’s Stonewall Inn that lnched the gay rights movement.

“I’m not bothered by gay people or transsexual people. Inclivy & Anhser-BchAnhser-Bch was nsired one of the natn's most LGBTQ-iendly pani long before the recent dt-up over s brand partnership wh brand has often teamed up wh LGBTQ-iendly events like Pri—even receivg a perfect '100' sre om the Human Rights Campaign's annual Corporate Equaly Inx 2015—and beme one of the first major beer brands wh LGBTQ+-clive advertisg 1995, albe only magaz tailored to the gay muny, acrdg to a 1999 fact check by the webse Snop. "Anhser-Bch, along wh Miller Brewg Co., long had the distctn of beg among the few pani that advertised gay media and also had a mastream media mercial wh a gay theme—long before beme fashnable, " Marketg The Rabow, a blog that monors pani' relatnship wh the LGBTQ muny, wrote a se study on s webse.

NEW ‘GAY WATER’ LOOKS TO AVOID BUD LIGHT DISASTER

Over the years, mpaign fance reports show Anhser-Bch has also donated approximately $75, 000 to figur like Florida Republin Governor Ron DeSantis, who the followg year signed a bill lled the Parental Rights Edutn Act that crics dubbed as "Don't Say Gay" to law March the pany's current CEO, Brendan Whworth, did donate $575 to Print Joe Bin's 2020 mpaign fund, Anhser-Bch as a pany appears to give s largt sgle donatns to nservativ. 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.

“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.

RON DESANTIS CONSIRS SUG BUD LIGHT OVER ANTI-GAY BOYTTS BEE WHY NOT?

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.”. 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.

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. 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).