'We're not hidg': Gay and lbian Rsians say a cultural shift is unrway

Contents:

• 'WE'RE NOT HIDG': GAY AND LBIAN RSIANS SAY A CULTURAL SHIFT IS UNRWAY
• EXPLAER: WHAT DO NEW ‘GAY PROPAGANDA’ LAW MEAN FOR LGBTIQ+ RSIANS?
• GAY RSIA

'WE'RE NOT HIDG': GAY AND LBIAN RSIANS SAY A CULTURAL SHIFT IS UNRWAY

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.

EXPLAER: WHAT DO NEW ‘GAY PROPAGANDA’ LAW MEAN FOR LGBTIQ+ RSIANS?

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.”.

GAY RSIA

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. Rsia’s so-lled ‘gay propaganda’ law has banned the promotn of “non-tradnal sexual valu” to unr-18s sce, the Rsian parliament has passed an expand versn of the law that outlaws all mentns of LGBTIQ-related topics the media – cludg film, televisn, advertisg, onle and ’s what you need to history of Rsia’s ‘gay propaganda’ lawOn 29 June 2013, Rsian print Vladimir Put signed a new law lled “On the propaganda of non-tradnal sexual relatns among mors”. The new law banned the promotn to children of “dgs, paedophilia and homosexualy” – or anythg else the Kreml ems ntradictory to “tradnal fay valu”, although the law do not fe what those valu are some siari wh the UK’s homophobic Sectn 28 legislatn, which prohibed the “promotn of homosexualy” by lol thori and was force om 1988 to Put claims that the propaganda law “do not discrimate agast gay people”, both the European Court of Human Rights and the UN’s Human Rights Commtee have said that rerc stigma, enurag homophobia and harms children the ’s new?