Trans-identifying activist Dylan Mulvaney addressed fans Thursday for the first time since the Bud Light controversy took the nation by storm.
Mulvaney, who boasts 10.8 million followers on TikTok and 1.8 million followers on Instagram, shared a video discussing why the influencer was “offline for a few weeks.”
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“A lot has been said about me,” Mulvaney said in the clip, which was posted on both platforms. “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. It was so loud that I didn’t even feel part of the conversation so I decided to take the backseat.”
Mulvaney claimed to be “doing OK,” but said being called “too feminine and over the top” reminded the influencer of being teased during childhood.
“But this time it’s from other adults,” Mulvaney said. “And if they’re going to accuse me of anything it should be that I’m a theater person and that I’m camp. But this is just my personality and it always has been.”
“What I’m struggling to understand is the need to dehumanize and to be cruel. Dehumanization has never fixed anything in history,” the influencer said.
“I grew up in a conservative family and I’m extremely privileged because they still love me very much. And I grew up in the church and I still have my faith, which I am really trying to hold on to right now” Mulvaney said, mentioning always trying “to love everyone, even the people that make it really, really hard.”
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Finally, Mulvaney indicated that videos will continue in service to fans “who know me and my heart [and] won’t listen to that noise.”
“The good news is that the people pleaser in me has nearly died because there’s clearly no way of winning over everyone. But if you’re still around, I am too,” Mulvaney concluded.
The TikTok star, who became famous for documenting the so-called “transition” process as part of a series called “Days of Girlhood,” started an uproar after posting about a brand partnership with Bud Light on April 1.
Since then, Bud Light and their parent company Anheuser-Busch have suffered declining sales and public boycotts. Bud Light sales fell 17% in dollars and 21% in volume in the week that ended April 15, per a previous report from The Daily Wire. Two marketing executives working on the Bud Light brand were placed on leave.
Anheuser-Busch initially said in a statement that it “works with hundreds of influencers across our brands as one of many ways to authentically connect with audiences across various demographics.”
“From time to time we produce unique commemorative cans for fans and for brand influencers, like Dylan Mulvaney,” the company said. “This commemorative can was a gift to celebrate a personal milestone and is not for sale to the general public.”