 I took a brand deal with a company that I loved and I posted a sponsored video to my page. And it must have been a slow news week because the way that this ad got blown up, you would have thought I was like on a billboard or on a TV commercial or something major. But no, it was just an Instagram video. And the wildest part is that they also sent me one can with my face on it. You might have seen it. And funny story, I had the can around my house, but then I realized, wait, I need to protect this can. So I hid it somewhere and now I can't find it because I hid it so well. But when I do find it, I feel like it needs to go in a museum, preferably behind bulletproof glass. And you might be thinking, Dylan, why bring it up now? I'm bringing it up because what transpired from that video was more bullying and transphobia than I could have ever imagined. And I should have made this video months ago, but I didn't. And I was scared and I was scared of more backlash and I felt personally guilty for what transpired. So I patiently waited for things to get better. But surprise, they haven't really. And I was waiting for the brand to reach out to me, but they never did. And for months now, I've been scared to leave my house. I have been ridiculed in public. I've been followed. And I have felt a loneliness that I wouldn't wish on anyone. And I'm not telling you this because I want your pity. I am telling you this because if this is my experience from a very privileged perspective, know that it is much, much worse for other trans people. You just listened to a portion of a TikTok by trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney, who as you probably remember was at the center of a months-long controversy that's arguably still going on all because of a brand deal that she did with Bud Light. Now to be clear, Bud Light is a company that does not cater to children. This is a company that sells alcohol. So the whole think of the kid's argument was out the window. Conservatives were just mad that they did an ad campaign with a trans person. That's it. Now, this isn't the first time that she addressed this, but she does give us some additional insight into just how bad things got all because Bud Light sent her a can with her face on it. I mean, it's just truly ridiculous, but it shows you how toxic the climate is currently. She did nothing wrong. But I can't say the same for Bud Light because she's going to continue and explain why what they did in not backing her was really, really harmful. For a company to hire a trans person and then not publicly stand by them is worse in my opinion than not hiring a trans person at all because it gives customers permission to be as transphobic and hateful as they want. And the hate doesn't end with me. It has serious and grave consequences for the rest of our community. And you know, we're customers too. I know a lot of trans and queer people who love beer, and I have some lesbian friends who could drink some of those haters under the table. But to turn a blind eye and pretend everything is okay, it just isn't an option right now. And you might say, but Dylan, I don't want to get political. Babe, supporting trans people, it shouldn't be political. There should be nothing controversial or divisive about working with us. And I know it's possible because I've worked with some fantastic companies who care. But caring about the LGBTQ plus community requires a lot more than just a donation somewhere during Pride Month. And she is exactly correct about that. Bud Light and other corporations, to be fair, they've shown how hollowed their supposed support for the LGBTQ plus community really is. They'll pander to us with performative allyship and marketing campaigns in an effort to get us to buy their products. But the second that shit hits the fan, they abandon us like that. This case really demonstrates that. And for Bud Light to not even privately reach out to Dylan and see if she's doing okay after she's receiving death threats and attacks, it really is despicable. This corporation is spineless, but that's not surprising to anyone who's familiar with the way that these corporations function, right? But I actually do hope that queer people stop supporting this company, at least temporarily because of how spineless they've been in the face of this backlash that she's facing. Because again, the controversy, I have to keep going back to this, it stems from a brand deal that they did with a trans person. Substitute trans with gay or Jewish or black or disabled, and you'd see that it's nothing more than bigotry in its purest, most explicit form. But that's who Bud Light chose to side with. They chose not to side with trans people and the LGBTQ plus community at large. They chose to kowtow to bigots, not a winning strategy. And again, this isn't just about Dylan Mulvaney. This is about trans people in general. Their existence should not be controversial or political as she stated. And to the extent that it is, that's not their fault. That's not their problem. That's society's problem. Trans people have always existed and they will continue to exist. And so for people to melt down by simply collaborating in a limited sense for one post with this trans influencer is ridiculous. And what's even more ridiculous is that the company doesn't stand by them, right? Now for those who haven't followed this story, I'm not going to rehash it. The right wing meltdowns. This is something that I've talked about. So I've made videos about that. You can watch them if you want to get the gist of their outrage. It's just pure bigotry. Having said that though, what I do want to talk about is Bud Light's response. So you do have the additional context because we need to acknowledge how bad their response was in actuality as she puts it. As them explains, on April 14th, Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth released a lackluster statement that doesn't directly address the controversy or show support for Mulvaney. Instead, Whitworth offered the hollow promise that he's, quote, focused on building and protecting our remarkable history and heritage, whatever that means. We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people, the statement continued. We are in the business of bringing people together over beer. Even as the company faced declining Bud Light sales and continuing right wing uproar, it appeared to begin buckling under the pressure. In late April, the Wall Street Journal reported that two Anheuser-Busch marketing executives had been placed on leave, sparking criticism from LGBTQ plus advocates and allies that the company was not standing by its marketing division amid the controversy. In late May, the Human Rights Campaign notified Anheuser-Busch in a letter that they were at risk of losing their perfect corporate equality index score if the company did not take more substantive steps. Shortly afterward, Anheuser-Busch announced that it would be donating $200,000 to the Communities of Color initiative under the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce. The initiative supports QTPOC-owned businesses through certification, scholarships, and business development in an effort to create equal opportunities for the economic advancement of small businesses in the LGBTQ plus community per oppressed release. How conveniently timed to the beginning of Pride Month. Now the fact that the Human Rights Campaign gave them a perfect score in the first place is embarrassing because it shows how their entire grading system is fundamentally flawed and we'll get to why that's the case in a moment. But obviously getting back to Bud Light, their response was milk toast and it was pathetic. They are literally trying to fence it between a community that wants to exist and a community that does not want them to exist. When one side's existence is existentially threatened, you can't fence it and try to play both sides. This is a zero sum game, right? You've got to pick a side. You're either with the people who want to exist or you're with the people who don't want them to exist. There's no wiggle room here, right? One side has to win and the other side has to lose and I can guarantee you that these bigots are going to lose again just like they've lost every single civil rights battle in our country's history. But Bud Light's cowardly behavior isn't the only takeaway here. People need to know that none of these large multinational corporations actually care about social justice causes or any political causes. They'll say that they do because they want your money, but they don't, right? It's not just queer people who they're disingenuously supporting. When it comes to the environment, they'll make these fake pledges about net zero when an actuality that is nothing more than greenwashing, right? And we know that corporations don't care, especially about queer people specifically because they donate to politicians who want to destroy us. And this brings us back to the human rights campaign and me not being able to understand why they would give Anheuser-Busch a perfect equality score when they donate to a party that wants to eradicate trans people from existence. Let me show you what I'm talking about here. In the last election cycle alone, they donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican politicians. And on top of that, their donations were so large that the National Republican Campaign Committee tweeted then quickly deleted an attack on Bud Light probably after one of their social media team members was reminded that they shouldn't bite the hen that feeds them. So that's why so many LGBTQ plus people take issue with rainbow capitalism, right? Because it is inherently disingenuous, right? They'll do a marketing campaign and pander to us in a virtue signal, but then behind the scenes, they're donating to politicians who want to eradicate this entire community. And we know that this isn't necessarily because they love us or hate us, they don't care about us. That's the point. They're driven by one thing and one thing only and that's profits. Corporations are not our friends at best, they're frenemies, but I mean even that is a little bit of a stretch. But on the opposite side of the same coin, the fact that they're even willing to pander to us at all is in some way evidence that we've won, right? Because a corporation is motivated by profits and so if they feel as if they can exploit our community or any community or political cause for profits, even though that's gross, it is an indicator of where we're at with society. If they can't profit off of us then that means that we have more work to do to gain influence, right? So when they no longer feel like it's worth marketing to us specifically, that means that they think we're too divisive and they can't profit off of us, which kind of gives us an indication that we're in pretty bad shape. And I absolutely despise the fact that we can kind of use corporations' virtue signaling as a gauge as to where we're at with regard to societal acceptance. But in a capitalist society, especially a late-stage capitalist society, it is indeed a pretty good indicator of progress in one superficial sense as twisted as that sounds, right? So long story short, corporations are not our friends, but I feel like most of you watching already knew that. But in conclusion, here's what I will say. The silver lining is that conservatives ended up inadvertently making Dylan Mulvaney more popular than ever. I mean, personally, I wouldn't have found out about her had it not been for this controversy. And guess what? I'm a fan. They just seems like a genuine and wholesome person. And I think that young trans girls really need that. They need to see someone who is strong and confident in their own skin, and they need to see someone not back down in the face of bullying. That's inspirational to young trans people. The right has made her a role model. And I know that that wasn't their intention, but that happened because you can just see through their blind hatred for somebody who did nothing to them, who did nothing to anyone. And we need more trans role models. They shouldn't emerge because of things like this. But the fact that we have another trans role model, I think that that is good.