Gay Water, a new nned cktail, wants to be the anti-Bud Light - WTOP News

Contents:

• HEY BUD LIGHT BOYTTERS, PROTTG BEER IS ACTUALLY REALLY GAY
• NEW ‘GAY WATER’ LOOKS TO AVOID BUD LIGHT DISASTER
• GAY WATER, A NEW NNED CKTAIL, WANTS TO BE THE ANTI-BUD LIGHT
• GAY BAR BOYTTS BUD LIGHT AFTER ANHSER-BCH ‘ABANDONED’ QUEER MUNY DYLAN MULVANEY FIAS

HEY BUD LIGHT BOYTTERS, PROTTG BEER IS ACTUALLY REALLY GAY

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.

NEW ‘GAY WATER’ LOOKS TO AVOID BUD LIGHT DISASTER

“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.”.

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

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. “I’m not bothered by gay people or transsexual people.

GAY BAR BOYTTS BUD LIGHT AFTER ANHSER-BCH ‘ABANDONED’ QUEER MUNY DYLAN MULVANEY FIAS

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). 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.