Transgender Influencer's Partnerships Drop After Dylan Mulvaney Controversy

October 06, 2024

Transgender influencer Rose Montoya has experienced a downtick in partnership opportunities after the boycott of Bud Light over its commemorative can sent to Dylan Mulvaney in April.
Typically flooded with dozens of emails in advance of Pride Month, Montoya told Newsweek she's received less than a dozen requests so far.
Hatred toward the transgender community has been on the rise since March after a transgender shooter killed six people in Nashville.

Transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney's partnership with Bud Light has catapulted company partnerships into the limelight, and Rose Montoya, a Latinx transgender influencer, thinks the furor could explain why some brands are rethinking partnerships leading up to Pride month.

Mulvaney became the subject of widespread criticism after Bud Light sent her a commemorative can with her face on it to celebrate her one-year anniversary of transitioning to a woman. Anheuser-Busch's stock dropped in the wake of the boycott and the company has seen a decline in Bud Light sales, forcing the company to part ways with several executives and walk back the significance of the Mulvaney partnership.

Montoya told Newsweek that she's seen fewer sponsorship opportunities since the Bud Light boycott began on April 1. With two weeks until Pride Month begins, Montoya told Newsweek she has received less than a dozen emails regarding sponsorship opportunities when normally she would have received "dozens and dozens."

"What's wild is usually all of April and May I'm receiving dozens of emails from all sorts of brands large and small, networks, in-person speaking events, you name it," Montoya said. "The last three years have been overwhelming with the amount of emails asking to work with me for Pride.

"I haven't received a dozen yet," she added.

Most of Montoya's sponsorships and partnership opportunities are centered around June, which is Pride Month. For years, companies have used the month as a time to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community, making transgender influencers a sought-after partnership deal. Montoya expected this year to be the same, but the surge in business opportunities she usually receives in April and May hasn't transpired. With a collective of 1 million followers across her social media accounts, Montoya has a collection of sizable partnerships under her belt already, including with Rihanna's makeup brand Fenty Beauty and social media platform TikTok.

Montoya said she still has several sponsorship opportunities, but most of them are from year-long contracts that were already in place before the Bud Light drama took hold.

"I'm going to be OK, I do have some partnerships," she said, adding that no company cited the Bud Light fallout as a reason not to partner with her.

Pride Month is lucrative for many LGBTQ+ influencers, according to Montoya. She said most queer creators make a third of their annual income during the month of June.

"The majority of brands want to work with us for Pride Month, but rest of the year we are often forgotten," she said.

Not all transgender influencers are feeling the impact of Mulvaney's partnership. Hera Anderson, a transgender influencer and video creator with more than 9,500 followers on Instagram and 2,300 subscribers on YouTube, said she continues to receive collaboration requests from brands.

"Nothing [has] changed from my side," Anderson told Newsweek.

Despite not feeling the impact herself, Anderson criticized the "unacceptable" reaction to Mulvaney's partnership with Bud Light. She criticized Republicans for fueling "discrimination, hatred and transphobia in the society."

The Bud Light Boycott

Anheuser-Busch was not the first alcohol company to partner with a transgender influencer. However, Montoya said as more anti-transgender bills are proposed in legislature, she feels people are more emboldened to be honest about their transphobia, leading to boycotts and protests when a company publicly partners with a transgender influencer.

Other companies receiving backlash for their transgender partnerships include Sports Illustrated, which featured Grammy Award winner and singer-songwriter Kim Petras on the cover of its highly anticipated Swimsuit Edition; Jack Daniel's Whiskey for its "small town, big pride" campaign and chocolate maker Hershey's for including a transgender rights activist on chocolate wrappers as part of an advertising campaign.

Anheuser-Busch fueled the situation with its response, which neither condemned nor defended its actions of partnering with Mulvaney. The beer company waited two weeks before posting publicly on social media about the controversy in a statement that infuriated both sides.

The message, written by Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth, didn't overtly support one side or the other. The message itself did not mention the term "LGBTQ+" nor did it mention the LGBTQ+ community, but it did mention some of its other community partners.

"We have thousands of partners, millions of fans and a proud history supporting our communities, military, first responders, sports fans and hard-working Americans everywhere," Whitworth wrote in the statement.

Some people thought the statement was attempting to be politically correct and criticized the company for not taking a stronger stance by supporting its transgender customers and partners.

Anheuser-Busch said, "We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people. We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer."

The statement further exacerbated the situation, in what some experts called a "massive blunder" of a response.

First Sign Something Had Changed

Montoya was clued into something being off toward the transgender community on March 31, which is recognized as Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV).

Normally, Montoya receives an outpouring of love across her social media accounts on TDOV, but this year the response turned dark.

"It was a really challenging day for me to be online," she said. "Usually TDOV is a day I get the most amount of love, support and attention on my [social media] pages. This year was the first time I received almost nothing but hate."

Transgender Day of Visibility landed just two days after a Nashville shooting that killed six people—including three children—was carried out by a transgender shooter.

"I had multiple videos go viral with hundreds of thousands of hate comments," Montoya said.

The comments included death threats and derogatory language. Montoya said she resorted to turning off her phone and prohibiting comments on certain posts.

A day after TDOV, Mulvaney's partnership with Bud Light went live, and conservatives were quick to elicit a strong backlash.

The Power of Transgender Influencers

Despite the influx of negative comments and the effect on her partnership opportunities, Montoya has a positive outlook.

"It just goes to show the power that trans people have," she said. "Part of me is happy to see the power Dylan has because that shows the influence and the ability to potentially create positive change in the world as well."

Montoya is feeling the impact of the backlash from conservatives, but she doesn't have fears for her sponsorship opportunities in the future.

"I don't think it's permanent," she said. "Any boycott doesn't last that long."

Uncommon Knowledge

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