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Conservatives are sending hate to bands playing on a tour sponsored by Bud Light

They're calling Bud Light's Backyard Tour the "backdoor tour" and accusing the bans of "grooming" for being associated with the beer bran
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Bud Light
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Anti-LGBTQ+ conservatives just won’t let their Bud Light boycott go—even after the beer brand’s parent company, Anheuser-Busch, essentially capitulated to backlash against a partnership earlier this year with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

Most recently, anti-LGBTQ+ trolls have targeted the bands performing as part of Bud Light’s Backyard Tour.

Related:

Dylan Mulvaney calls out Bud Light for not supporting her in powerful new statement

“For a company to hire a trans person and then not publicly stand by them is worse, in my opinion, than not hiring a trans person at all,” she said.

The brand announced the summer concert tour last week, featuring performances by OneRepublic in Nashville, Tennessee, country trio Midland in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Dashboard Confessional in St. Louis, Missouri, and Bush in Charlottesville, Virginia. All four dates are set to take place in August.

“Ice up the beers, because the Bud Light Backyard tour is coming through,” read a July 13 post announcing the all-male, all white, all cis-het bands and tour dates on Bud Light’s official Twitter account.

As The Street reported, anti-LGBTQ+ trolls were quick to respond with a barrage of hateful comments directed at both Bud Light and the bands performing on the tour.

“RIP all those bands” one user tweeted.

“Add 4 more to the boycott!” wrote another, referencing the boycott mania that anti-LGBTQ+ conservatives have directed at Bud Light as well as other brands like Target, Lego, North Face, and even Chick-Fil-A this summer over Pride products, support for diversity, and LGBTQ+ inclusive marketing campaigns.

Too many others to count took cheap shots at the tour’s name, rechristening the Backyard Tour the “backdoor” tour.

The bands themselves were the targets of many other blatantly homophobic comments. One Twitter user described OneRepublic, Midland, and Dashboard Confessional as looking “a little fruity,” while another took a veiled shot at Midland’s outfits. Another described OneRepublic as “Transsexual loving woman haters.”

And it should probably come as no surprise that plenty of trolls lobbed completely unfounded allegations of “grooming” at the bands.

“One Republic??? Still pandering and grooming?” one wrote.

“Not interested in backyard groomers. Try again, losers,” tweeted another

Bud Light’s troubles began in April when conservatives began calling for a boycott after the brand sent Mulvaney a one-off custom beer can with a picture of her face and partnered with the trans influencer for its March Madness “Easy Carry Contest.”

Conservatives posted videos of themselves dumping cans of the beer and shooting up cases of Bud Light, which they had already purchased, with semiautomatic rifles.

In its response to the backlash, Anheuser-Busch failed to denounce the blatant transphobia, and CEO Michel Doukeris was reportedly caught distancing the company from Mulvaney on a call with investors, leading to criticism from LGBTQ+ people as well.

Last month, Mulvaney posted a video in which she suggested, without referencing the company by name, that Anheuser-Busch had hung her out to dry amid a wave of online bullying and transphobia.

Despite its history of marketing to the LGBTQ+ community, Anheuser-Busch also has history of funding anti-LGBTQ+ organizations and lawmakers. In 2021, New York’s iconic Stonewall Inn banned the company’s beers after it was revealed that Anheuser-Busch donated over $35,000 to anti-LGBTQ+ state-level politicians.

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