Beer drinkers visiting Chicago’s popular gay bars may have a hard time finding popular brands like Bud Light, Stella Artois, and Michelob Ultra. That’s because at least five LGBTQ venues in the city are boycotting the Anheuser-Busch beer company and its products following the company’s partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
Mulvaney, best known for her «Days of Girlhood» TikTok series, partnered with the company during the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament. The society, which consisted of a sponsored post on his Instagram account promoting Bud Light, he generated backlash from the right. The company’s response to that backlash prompted accusations that it was abandoning the 25-year-old Mulvaney, which in turn prompted a response from the LGBTQ community.
«We’ve just removed their products,» Mark Robertson, co-owner of Chicago-based 2Bears Tavern Group, told NBC News on Tuesday. “Our position is that we hope that the products we sell align their values with ours or do not trample on the rights of our customers. That’s where we think Anheuser-Busch crossed the line.»
Robertson, whose company owns four LGBTQ bars in Chicago, said the last straw came after Anheuser-Busch InBev’s quarterly earnings call on Thursday when, he said, company leaders tried to further «distance themselves from this whole situation.»
Asked by an analyst about the Mulvaney partnership and how a seemingly small partnership became «something much bigger than that,» Anheuser-Busch InBev CEO Michael Doukeris said, in part: «We’ll have to keep clarifying. the fact that this was a can, an influencer, a post, and not a campaign, and repeat this message for some time.
Robertson said: «They have chosen to side with a group of people who are being very hateful, who don’t value, you know, human rights or LGBTQ life.»
The backlash from the right to the Mulvaney-Bud Light partnership was swift, especially on social media. Countless videos were shared online showing consumers throwing away their Bud Light products. in garbage bins and sinkholes – and even violently destroying beer cans. A particularly jarring response came in a instagram video posted by singer-songwriter Kid Rock, who can be seen shooting boxes of Bud Light with what appeared to be a semi-automatic rifle.
Shortly after the earnings call on Thursday, Robertson announced on social media that «All 2Bears Tavern Group bars are discontinuing Anheuser-Busch InBev products as a result of the brewer’s anti-transgender actions and statements.» The group owns four LGBTQ bars in Chicago: 2Bears Tavern, Jackhammer, Meeting House Tavern and The SoFo Tap.
Following the announcement of 2Bears Tavern Group, Sidetrack, a popular LGBTQ spot that has been in town for more than 40 years, announced that it will also stop the sale of Anheuser-Busch products.
When asked about LGBTQ bars in Chicago that no longer carry the company’s products, an Anheuser-Busch InBev spokesperson said in an emailed statement: «We remain committed to the programs and partnerships we’ve forged over decades. with organizations to drive economic prosperity around the world. various communities, including those in the LGBTQ+ community.”
Robertson said he does not anticipate selling Anheuser-Busch products in any of his bars again.
“It is not about economic prosperity; this is about human rights,” she said. «You can’t, on the one hand, say we’re going to keep putting rainbows on our cans and we’re going to keep sponsoring parades, while, on the other hand, we’re basically leaning towards what’s a lot of hate and vitriol.»
HSBC, the largest bank in Europe, downgraded Anheuser-Busch InBev’s stock rating from a «buy» to a «hold» as the company deals with its «Bud Light crisis,» CNBC reported Wednesday.