How Trans TikTok Star Dylan Mulvaney Became A Far-Right Target After Scoring Deals With Bud Light And Nike

Topline

Dylan Mulvaney, a TikTok star known for posting videos about her gender transition, is the target of furor from far-right media personalities, Olympic athletes and recording artists after new marketing partnerships with Bud Light and Nike, the last storm of controversy surrounding a personality known for being upbeat and positive.

Dylan Mulvaney attends the 65th GRAMMY Awards on February 5, 2023. (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty … [+] Images for The Recording Academy)

Getty Images for The Recording Academy

Timeline

April 1, 2023Mulvaney, 26, shared a video on social media stating Bud Light sent her a can with her face on it to celebrate her one-year anniversary of publicly identifying as transgender, and announced a March Madness contest participants can enter to win $15,000.

April 3, 2023Amid an onslaught of objections from conservatives on social media, musician Kid Rock posted a video shooting cans of Bud Light and yelling profanities about the company and its owner, Anheuser-Busch (Anheuser-Busch defended its decision to collaborate with Mulvaney, who is one of “hundreds of influencers” they partner with).

April 4, 2023Without addressing the controversy directly, Mulvaney posted a video to her 10 million TikTok followers stating she hasn’t made many videos lately because she’s felt “a little down,” before telling a story about how a garbage collector on the street greeted her and made her day.

April 5, 2023Mulvaney unveiled a collaboration with Nike, posting an advertisement on Instagram in which she models a sports bra and leggings.

April 6, 2023Conservative backlash against Mulvaney’s Nike partnership and calls for boycotts began pouring in on social media, including from Olympic athletes Sharron Davies and Caitlyn Jenner—and Nike appeared to respond to the attacks in a comment on its own Instagram post (which was unrelated to Mulvaney, but received hundreds of angry comments) urging followers to be kind and inclusive and stating it would delete comments that include hate speech or bullying.

Key Background

Mulvaney is best known for her daily videos highlighting her gender transition, each of which begins with her declaring what day it is of being a girl. She acted on Broadway before starting her TikTok account in 2020 during the early days of the pandemic, several years before she came out as transgender. Since racking up millions of followers, Mulvaney has partnered with a number of brands and made high-profile media appearances. In October (on “day 222 of being a girl”), Mulvaney visited the White House and spoke with President Joe Biden about transgender rights in an interview for NowThis. Biden, during their conversation, said laws targeting transgender individuals and gender-affirming care are immoral. Last month, on “day 352 of being a girl,” she accepted the Queerties Groundbreaker Award, given by Queerty, an online LGBTQ magazine. In her speech, Mulvaney considered her “trans joy” in light of a barrage of anti-transgender legislation and protests to be groundbreaking.

Chief Critic

Mulvaney’s TikTok fame and media appearances have sparked an onslaught of online attacks, including from Republican lawmakers, media personalities and celebrities who have targeted Mulvaney for her transgender identity. Following Mulvaney’s conversation with Biden, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) tweeted one of Mulvaney’s TikToks, calling her identity “absurdity” and blasting Biden and “left-wing lunatics” for supporting the transgender community. Caitlyn Jenner, also a transgender woman, posted a tweet agreeing with Blackburn. Mulvaney posted a TikTok responding to Jenner (which has garnered more than 5 million likes), criticizing her for using her large platform to invalidate another transgender woman’s identity. After announcing her Bud Light brand deal, conservative commentators including Ben Shapiro and Candace Owens tweeted criticisms of the company and Mulvaney, with Owens calling Mulvaney’s transgender identity “woman-face.” Country musicians, including Travis Tritt and John Rich, announced they would no longer support Bud Light, with Tritt no longer including Bud Light in his tour hospitality rider. Some athletes were quick to condemn Nike and Mulvaney for their partnership: Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies called for a Nike boycott, labeling Nike’s decision to partner with a transgender woman “a kick in the teeth” and repeating her calls to bar transgender women from competing in women’s sports. Jenner similarly slammed Nike as “woke.”

Contra

Conservatives now trying to boycott Bud Light have become the subject of internet mockery. Some have posted videos throwing away perfectly good cans of Bud Light—with others pointing out they’ve already purchased the beer and given the company their money. Others have declared they’re switching to Coors Light, though parent company Molson Coors has long supported LGBTQ organizations and sponsors Denver Pride. Some on social media were quick to mock Tritt, who says he will no longer have Bud Light in his tour hospitality rider: Journalist Radley Balko tweeted, “‘I will no longer be requesting free Anheuser-Busch products to drink backstage’ is the funniest attempt at a political boycott since right-wingers were smashing their Keurigs with baseball bats.” Noodles, the guitarist for rock band The Offspring, tweeted he will be adding Bud Light products to his tour hospitality rider “just to piss off a bunch of dimwitted bigots who fear what they don’t understand.”

Fact-Checking False Claims

Some outdated and debunked claims also circulated on social media amid the controversy:

A false claim Anheuser-Busch fired its entire marketing department in response to the controversy over its partnership with Mulvaney went viral, though this was debunked.
Some online anger centered around Bud Light releasing a line of LGBTQ Pride-themed cans, but these were a limited release in Canada last year and are not connected to Anheuser-Busch’s partnership with Mulvaney.
A June 2021 Jack Daniels and RuPaul’s Drag Race partnership resurfaced, stoking online anger (including from Tritt) despite the campaign being nearly two years old.

Tangent

Growing online attacks against Mulvaney have occurred as protests and laws targeting the transgender community have ramped up. The American Civil Liberties Union has identified 451 bills it considers anti-trans introduced in state legislatures in 2023, more than double the amount introduced in 2022. Many of these bills seek to ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth and would limit the instruction of gender and sexuality in schools.