After Anheuser-Busch generated controversy with its transgender campaign featuring popular transgender woman Dylan Mulvaney, an LGBTQ group called the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is pushing the company to double down, according to Newsmax. The group’s request for Bud Light to “stand in solidarity” with the transgender community comes after conservatives decided they were going to boycott the company and its brands.
In a letter to Anheuser-Busch, HRC Senior Vice President Jay Brown suggested that it was “critical” for them to assert its values. But he also criticized them for “displaying a lack of fortitude” in “diversity, equity, and inclusion to employees.” The letter continues to say that this lack of assertiveness contributes to bigotry and the hate that engulfs the LGBTQ community. He added that by not standing with them, the company is going to experience strained relationships with their customers and employees.
The letter also states that they are preparing to lower the beer company’s score on the Corporate Equality Index score.
Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth reportedly responded to the criticism and said that he never intended to divide people. He said that the company wants to bring people together over a beer and has thousands of partners and supports various communities, including the “military, first responders, sports fans and hard-working Americans everywhere.”
But after sales were on a decline following the boycott, the company put two executives on leave. In a video that circulated social media, one of the female executives said that she wanted to change the “fratty culture” of Bud Light to be more “inclusive.”
The pushback against the transgender campaign comes at a time when the left and right are sparring over legislation designed to prevent minors from getting life-altering “gender-affirming” surgeries done on them. 470 bills regarding the LGBTQ community have been introduced across the country this year, according to the ACLU.
