Brewery Pulls PrideFest Funding as Mulvaney Backlash Echoes into 2025
Anheuser-Busch, the St. Louis-based brewing giant, announced this week it would no longer sponsor the city’s annual PrideFest, marking the end of a 30-year partnership. The decision, confirmed by Pride St. Louis, leaves the festival—set for June 28-29, 2025—facing a $150,000 funding gap, prompting a community-driven “#45for45” campaign to keep the event afloat. While the company has not publicly detailed its reasoning, the move comes as it continues to grapple with the financial and cultural repercussions of its 2023 marketing misstep with transgender “influencer” Dylan Mulvaney, a debacle that reshaped its public image and bottom line.
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The Mulvaney controversy erupted in April 2023 when Bud Light, an Anheuser-Busch flagship brand, partnered with the TikTok creator for a promotional campaign. Mulvaney showcased a custom can celebrating his “365 Days of Girlhood” series, igniting a firestorm of conservative backlash. High-profile figures like Kid Rock and Travis Tritt fueled a boycott, with viral videos of Bud Light cans being destroyed amplifying the outrage. The brand, once America’s top-selling beer, saw sales plummet by over 13% in the U.S., costing Anheuser-Busch an estimated $1.4 billion in lost revenue. Modelo Especial overtook Bud Light as the nation’s leading beer, and the company’s attempts to recover—through a 2024 Super Bowl ad and a UFC partnership—have yet to fully restore its pre-2023 dominance.
Ending Support for LGBTQ+
The PrideFest withdrawal reflects a broader retreat from visible LGBTQ+ support, a shift some tie directly to the Mulvaney fallout. Anheuser-Busch also ended sponsorships for San Francisco Pride and faced reduced contributions from other corporate partners, mirroring a trend of declining corporate backing for Pride events nationwide. Local St. Louis businesses, like Rehab Bar and Grill, responded by boycotting Anheuser-Busch products, while others, such as Greenfinch Theater and Dive, are donating proceeds from existing stock to transgender causes. Pride St. Louis, meanwhile, remains defiant, with President Marty Zuniga vowing that “canceling PrideFest is not an option.”
The decision has drawn sharp reactions, including from conservative commentator Eric Metaxas, who praised it as a victory for the boycott’s supporters. Metaxas wrote, “This is HUGE and it’s thanks to all of you who refused to buy @AnheuserBusch products following their INSANE decision to feature Dylan Mulvaney on their Budlite cans… I may now go back to ordering a Stella Artois once in a while…” His comment underscores a sentiment among conservative consumers that their sustained pressure forced Anheuser-Busch to reconsider its affiliations, though his nod to Stella Artois—another Anheuser-Busch brand—adds a layer of irony.
Realigning with the Majority
The Mulvaney episode exposed Anheuser-Busch to criticism from both sides: conservatives decried it as “woke” pandering, while LGBTQ+ advocates, including the Human Rights Campaign, stripped the company of its perfect “Corporate Equality Index” score for not” “standing by” Mulvaney. The brewery’s U.S. revenue dropped 10% in 2023, and despite global growth, Bud Light’s domestic struggles persist into 2025. Efforts to pivot—such as emphasizing “American-made” branding—reveal a cautious recalibration, but the PrideFest exit suggests a realignment with conservative moral values in America.
