Dylan Mulvaney Reveals How She Dealt With Bud Light Backlash

Trans activist and TikTok influencer Dylan Mulvaney said that her TikTok was once a “pretty safe space,” but became a “culture war in the comments” following conservative outrage over her partnership with Bud Light in early April.

In an episode of the “Dear Schuyler” podcast this week, Mulvaney said the criticism has impacted her sleep and emphasized that she speaks “as much” now on her platform for the people who value her.

“What’s sad is my page for like a second was a pretty safe space, and then it sort’ve recently has become this like culture war in the comments,” Mulvaney told Schuyler Bailar, the first openly trans swimmer in NCAA Division 1 history.

Mulvaney’s partnership with Bud Light attracted a firestorm of criticism from Republicans. Kid Rock posted a video shooting Bud Light cans, while Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) called for a boycott of the beer.

Mulvaney broke her weekslong silence on TikTok in late April, when she remarked that “dehumanization has never fixed anything in history ever.”

Mulvaney told Bailar that prior to the recent surge in criticism, one person disliking her used to keep her up at night.

“Now there are hundreds of thousands of people that do not like me and I still sometimes can’t sleep,” Mulvaney said.

“It, in a weird way, has been a blessing to sort of break that people-pleasing mentality because I can’t, there’s no way that I can win those people over,” she continued. “And I actually – if you’ll go back to some of my earlier videos – I was like pleading with these people. I was like, what can I say to show them a different part of myself?”

You can hear more of Mulvaney’s conversation with Bailar in the video below.

Sales and pours of Bud Light have reportedly struggled in the wake of the outrage. The Human Rights Campaign knocked Anheuser-Busch, which previously received flak for its CEO’s statement on the partnership, for lending “credence to hate-filled rhetoric.”

The Bud Light sales slump continued in the week ending on April 29 as the company saw a 23% decrease in sales compared to one year prior, according to Bump Williams Consulting data reported by CBS News.