Bill Maher wondered if the backlash over Bud Light’s decision to partner with transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney lies in the fact that Americans are angry because “they shoved an agenda down their throats.”
“Do they have a point?” During Friday’s episode of HBO’s “Real Time,” Maher spoke with guest Piers Morgan and Rep. asked Katie Porter (D-Calif.).
“Why the overreaction to this?” Maher said. His comments was reported by Deadline.
The “Real Time” host lamented that “in trans issues, there seems to be no room for debate.”
“You have to accept everything they say or you’re a bigot,” Maher said.
Morgan said Mulvaney’s partnership with Nike, which included sporting her bra on social media, was more problematic than the Bud Light ad campaign.
“A lot of women are offended by the way Dylan Mulvaney sells himself on TikTok,” Morgan told Maher and Porter.
Morgan noted that women in sports have to compete with transgender athletes who have a biological advantage stemming from the fact that they were born male.
“It’s not as simple as saying ‘I’m a woman,'” Morgan said.
“It’s more complicated.”
She added: “A lot of women are saying, ‘What is really happening to us in this process?'”
Porter said that Mulvaney’s reaction is due to “male insecurities” and that Mulvaney is raising issues important to trans rights “while the right is fighting this culture war.”
Morgan responded by wondering if trans rights “also end or destroy women’s equal rights.”
“We should be able to have a civil discussion about these things,” Porter said.
On whether a transgender woman should be allowed to compete in women’s sports, the Democratic lawmaker said: “I believe that should be up to the sports organizations.”
Anheuser-Busch’s top executive offered an apology Friday that critics said was flat from the reaction to its sponsorship deal with beer giant Reel Mulvaney.
“We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people,” Anheuser-Busch InBev CEO Brandon Whitworth said In a press release titled “Our Responsibility to America.”
“We’re in the business of bringing people together over beer.”
Whitworth finally broke his silence on the brewing controversy but made no mention of the sponsorship deal with Mulvaney – which has led to calls for a boycott of the country’s biggest beer company.
He also did not address reports that senior officials were kept in the dark about the Mulvaney rollout.
The $132 billion beer company has seen its market value drop by $5 billion since launching the campaign on April 1.
Bush distributors across the country are feeling the consequences, with many bars in conservative states from Tennessee to Wyoming refusing to stock Bud Light.
