Social media sensation Dylan Mulvaney has broken her silence after a partnership with a beer company caused severe backlash.
Mulvaney, who posts video of her life as a woman after transitioning gender, began her video declaring it was “day 9610 of being a human”, saying she would leave gender out of it for this particular video.
It was a stark difference to her usual introduction, which marks how many days it had been since she transitioned.
“I’ve been offline for a few weeks, and a lot has been said about me, some of which is so far from my truth that I was hearing my name and I didn’t even know who they were talking about sometimes,” she said in a TikTok video that has now garnered more than seven million views.
Mulvaney stepped away from TikTok in April, and after coming back to share her new feminine face post-surgery in early April, she posted a video to her Instagram revealing brewing giant Anheuser-Busch InBev, which owns Bud Light, sent her a personalised can with her face on it to celebrate the anniversary of her gender transition.
“This month I celebrated my day 365 of womanhood, and Bud light sent me possibly the best gift ever,” Mulvaney told the camera.
The video prompted a boycott against the company over its “woke” misstep.
The beer is so popular that the brand name often slips into country music songs – and country stars were some of the first to react.
The singer Riley Green subbed in the name of another beer during one of his songs at a concert in mid-April, sparking cheers from the audience.
Artist Kid Rock went a step further, posting a video promising a “clear and concise” response to the controversy surrounding Bud Light. He then proceeded to shoot up cases of the beer with a semiautomatic rifle.
Sales of the beer also dropped due to the clip.
Mulvaney said she stepped away because the backlash was so loud that she didn’t feel part of the conversation, so she wanted to wait for people to “tucker themselves out”.
The 26-year-old said she was doing OK, and trying a “new thing” where she didn’t pressure herself to share until she was ready.
Mulvaney said her entire childhood she was made fun of for “being too feminine” and now it’s happening, with other adults now mocking her.
She said she grew up in a conservative family and the church and she’s incredibly lucky to still have support from both in her life.
“But what I’m struggling to understand is the need to dehumanise and be cruel, I just don’t think that’s right,” she said.
She said that kind of behaviour had never fixed anything in history.
“I’m embarrassed to even tell you this but I was nervous that you were going to start believing those things that they were saying about me since it was so loud,” she said.
“But I’m just gonna go ahead and trust that the people who know me and my heart won’t listen to that noise.”
She said she was more interested in getting back to making people laugh, learning and moving forward.
“I wanna start sharing parts on here that have nothing to do with my identity and I hope those parts will still be exciting to you and will be enough,” she added.
She thanked those who supported her – even those who may not fully understand her or relate to her, joking that if she is reincarnated she would love to be someone who isn’t controversial in her next life.