Budweiser Continues Pushing LGBTQ Agenda Despite Outrage

(DailyVantage.com) – Last week, the UK Guardian published an in-depth article chronicling Anheuser-Busch’s fall from grace after the disastrous decision to partner with transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney that noted some LGBTQ activists are pushing for the company to forge ahead with its LGBTQ agenda despite the damage it has done to the brand.

Speaking to several sources within the company, as well as the LGBTQ organizations that have worked with Anheuser-Busch in the past, Guardian writer Owen Myers examines how the blowback over the Bud Lite/Mulvaney partnership has affected the company.

One former Anheuser-Busch employee told the Guardian that the beer giant dropped the ball during the controversy, failing to show the appropriate leadership.

The former employee claimed that the backlash prompted panic that led to “a lot of rash decision-making,” while the company leadership remained silent for more than a month. The source told the Guardian that when the company did finally release a statement, it “pretty much said nothing.”

The former Anheuser-Busch employees who spoke with the Guardian said they were most concerned about Dylan Mulvaney’s safety following the backlash, with one former employee claiming to have asked the boss if the company was “doing everything we can” to support him. The boss dismissed the concern, saying the company is “constantly” in communication with Mulvaney.

But LGBTQ activists want Anheuser-Busch to shake off the controversy and continue forging ahead with its LGBTQ outreach.

Brian Wenke, the executive director of It Gets Better, an LGBTQ youth non-profit, told the Guardian that Bud Lite’s marketing pivot to more traditional “all-American” advertising was a cop-out.

He said that in trying to “appease everybody,” the company lost everyone—both conservatives and LGBTQ people alike.

Wenke said what Anheuser-Busch must do is “stay the course.” He said otherwise, the company will do “more damage” to itself than it would if it just “stuck to what you believed was the right path.”