Earlier this month, the trans influencer promoted the beer brand’s March Madness contest whilst simultaneously celebrating her first year living as a woman, which resulted in an onslaught of hate from conservatives and a public boycott of Bud Light.
Country singer Kid Rock filmed himself shooting several Bud Light cases with a submachine gun, while anti-LGBTQ+, Trump-loving gun advocate Marjorie Taylor Greene barbarically described Dylan as “one of the biggest paedophiles in America today”.
Additionally, several establishments stopped serving the beer after the collaboration and, according to industry research, sales plummeted by 17%.
After remaining “offline for a few weeks”, Dylan broke her silence in a video posted to TikTok on Thursday (27 April).
“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 know who they were talking about sometimes,” she told her 10.8 million followers on the platform.
“It was so loud that I didn’t even feel part of the conversation so I decided to take the backseat.”
Dylan assured her fans that she’s “doing okay” and is “trying this new thing” where she doesn’t pressure herself to share parts of herself before she’s ready.
“What I’m struggling with most is that I grew up in a conservative family, and I’m extremely privileged because they still love me very much,” she added.
“And I grew up in the church, and I still have my faith, which I am really trying to hold onto right now. But I’ve always tried to love everyone, you know, even the people who make it really, really hard.
“And I think it’s okay to be frustrated with someone or confused, but what I’m struggling to understand is the need to dehumanize and to be cruel. I just, I don’t think that’s right. Dehumanization has never fixed anything in history, ever.”
Dylan thought her followers would “start believing” the malicious rumours about her, “since it is so loud”.
“But I’m just going to go ahead and trust that the people who know me and my heart won’t listen to that noise,” she said.
“What I’m interested in is getting back to making people laugh and to never stop learning. And going forward, I wanna share parts of me on here that have nothing to do with my identity.
“And I’m hoping those parts will still be exciting to you and will be enough. And to those of you who support me and choose to see my humanity even if you don’t fully understand or relate to me: thank you.”
In a recent interview with GAY TIMES, Dylan predicted that the anti-trans brigade would try and “steal” her joy “and “twist it into something ugly”, but said she’s determined to “keep that little bit of innocence and joy that I have left”.
When asked what her message would be for queer readers, she told us: “Hold on to any piece of joy that you have in your life right now, because there’s a lot of people trying to take that from us and they’re being really, really loud.
“And we need to be equally loud and proud and accepting, especially our allies out there, being vocal towards the support of our community. As well as really making sure that we are not exhausting ourselves.
“If we need to be in this for the long haul and if this is a battle that we’re going to be fighting for some time, we need to make sure that we are not fatigued and that we are taking time for ourselves and that we do not need to feel guilty about having a moment of joy or selfishness.
“I think that sometimes in our community, like any time we spring into doing something for ourselves, it’s seen as this enemy moment, and I think we have to be able to fill our lives with other things than just this darkness that’s happening.”
You can read our interview with Dylan Mulvaney here and watch her TikTok video below.
@dylanmulvaneyLove ya ❤️❤️
♬ original sound – Dylan Mulvaney