Gay Men, We Have a Drkg Problem

Contents:

• BEER IS SO GAY
• THIS AD IS BEG LLED THE “GAYT COMMERCIAL OF 2021”
• FOR COMPANI, LGBTQ-CLIVE ADS WEREN’T ALWAYS RISK-EE
• GAY MEN, WE HAVE A DRKG PROBLEM

BEER IS SO GAY

A participant opens a bottle wh champagne at the 40th Christopher Street Day gay pri march on July 28, 2018, Berl, Germany. SuperGay Spirs is a pany that produc vodka, and much like s name suggts, supports the LGBTQ+ muny all year long.

SuperGay is handcrafted upstate New York g anic rn and pure sprg water.

SuperGay’s master distiller veloped the brand’s recipe, which clus filterg the water through activated nut charal to purify the vodka. SuperGay Spirs do everythg by hand to have ntrol over the qualy of the vodka every step of the way. Bce Bozzi, the -founr of the rice-based Japane shochu brand, is openly gay.

THIS AD IS BEG LLED THE “GAYT COMMERCIAL OF 2021”

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. 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.

FOR COMPANI, LGBTQ-CLIVE ADS WEREN’T ALWAYS RISK-EE

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 MEN, WE HAVE A DRKG PROBLEM

“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. What you’ll rarely hear, though, is that a gay bar is a gay bar bee of the drks.

Gay Beer, Dyke Beer, and Queer Brewg are among the emergg group of beer producers that are centerg queer inty and queer muny, whether by highlightg queer brewers, donatg some profs to queer chari, or creatg queer third spac — munal spac distct om home and work — at a time when they’re disappearg. Gay Beer was created by Jon Moore and Jason Pazmo, bs partners and boyiends, 2017.