Anheuser-Busch loses LGBTQ+ equality rating from Human Rights Campaign for handling of Bud Light backlash

• The Human Rights Campaign removed Anheuser-Busch's equality score and "Best Places to Work Title."
• The decision was in response to how the company handled backlash a transgender influencer faced.

Bud Light's parent company Anheuser-Busch was once considered a "Best Place to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality," the highest equality score designated by the Human Rights Campaign, the country's largest LGBTQ+ advocacy group.

The group has since removed this designation in response to the company's handling of backlash from a Bud Light promotion that featured transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, USA Today reported.

In April, Mulvaney posted a promotion on her Instagram that featured custom Bud Light beer cans with prints of her face. Shortly after, a wave of conservative backlash slammed the beer brand for working with Mulvaney. Some called for a boycott, which appeared to lead to a dip in Bud Light sales.

On May 9, over a month after the initial backlash ensued, the Human Rights Campaign sent a letter to Anheuser-Busch saying it suspended company's equality score and revoked its "Best Places to Work" title, according to a copy of the letter shared with Insider. The group gave A-B 90 days to respond to its letter, after which time it could dock points from its previous perfect 100 score. The brewer hasn't responded to the letter so far, HRC said.

In a statement provided to Insider, Jay Brown, senior vice president of programs, research, and training at Human Rights Campaign, said the group decided to suspend Anheuser-Busch's equality score after several attempts to contact the company's executive team.

"We don't make this decision lightly," Brown said. He said showing support for the LGBTQ+ community is especially important right now, given the number of anti-LGBTQ legislative bills that have cropped up this year across the country. "This is about supporting the current and future workforce, as well as shareholders and consumers," he said. "We've seen that when businesses center inclusion in both policy and practice, they come out on top, regardless of baseless, hateful attacks."

Last year, the Human Rights Campaign gave Anheuser-Busch its highest equality rating: a 100 on its 2022 Corporate Equality Index score, a tool that weighs a company's corporate policies, practices, and benefits for its LGBTQ employees.

The score gave Anheuser-Busch a "Best Place to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality" designation, which meant the company took "concrete steps to establish and implement comprehensive policies, benefits, and practices that ensure greater equity for LGBTQ+ workers and their families," HRC's website says.

According to the letter sent to Insider, the group said it had previously sent another letter to Anheuser-Busch on April 26 asking the company to release a statement of support for Mulvaney and transgender customers, shareholders, and employees.

When asked about Anheuser-Busch's response to the Human Rights Campaign's decision to remove the Corporate Equality Index score, an Anheuser-Busch spokesperson said in a statement to Insider that the company remains "committed to the programs and partnerships we have forged over decades with organizations to drive economic prosperity across a number of communities, including those in the LGBTQ+ community."

Anheuser Busch's CEO of the North America branch, Brendan Whitworth, said in a statement two weeks after the backlash ensued. "We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people. We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer."

Dylan Mulvaney didn't directly speak out about the backlash she faced until she posted a video on her TikTok at the end of April. In it, she spoke about how she had been offline for a few weeks, and indirectly referred to the controversy, telling her followers, "I think it's okay to be frustrated with someone or confused, but what I'm struggling to understand is the need to dehumanize and to be cruel."

A representative for Dylan Mulvaney did not respond to Insider's request for comment ahead of publication.