Meet the shadowy rightwing activist who helped fun last year’s Dylan Mulvaney/Bud Light outrage – LGBTQ Nation

by Curated July 21, 2024 · Gay News / Gay Pride / Gay Rights / LGBTQ Nation

Leo is behind the Federalist Society’s push to stock the judiciary with rightwing judges, including Donald Trump’s three conservative appointments to the Supreme Court. He personally assisted Clarence Thomas in his Supreme Court confirmation hearings and led campaigns supporting the nominations of Chief Justice John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Cavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.

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Mulvaney sparked outrage among the right when she partnered with Bud Light in April 2023, part of a strategy laid out by the company’s vice president of marketing to update the “fratty” and “out of touch” legacy beer brand’s image. 

The company put Mulvaney’s face on a beer can that appeared in Mulvaney’s video, and the far right lost its mind. Consumers Defense was central to pushing the issue with a six-figure “woke alerts” digital ad campaign.

The group’s executive director, Will Hild, announced, “In light of the recent direction taken by companies like Bud Light, Jack Daniels, and Bank of America, we are launching ‘woke alerts’ to help consumers make better-informed decisions about where to spend their money.”

The massively promoted boycott campaign resulted in Bud Light losing its top spot among beer brands, a tumbling share price, and death threats against Mulvaney.

“For months now, I’ve been scared to leave my house,” she said in a video posted to Instagram. “I have been ridiculed in public, I’ve been followed, and I have felt a loneliness that I wouldn’t wish on anyone.” 

In one memorable protest, Kid Rock shot up a case of the once-popular blue-collar beer brand using an AR-15 semiautomatic machine gun, saying, “F**k Bud Light, and f**k Anheuser-Busch.”

Not long before the Bud Light boycott, Leo – an avowed opponent of “woke” culture, DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), and ESG (environmental, social, and governance investing) – described Consumer Research as “executing the most impactful pushback I know against ESG and other aspects of woke corporate culture.”

“It’s time that businesses that are out of step with the sentiments of most Americans pay a price for their standing up for woke special interest instead of consumers,” he told the Washington Post in 2023.

Caroline Ciccone, president of Accountable.US, said, “Leonard Leo hasn’t just leveraged his dark money network to reshape our courts for the worse – he’s also fueling hateful anti-LGBTQ+ causes.”

“Leo’s billion-dollar operation and web of shadowy organizations actively work to marginalize vulnerable communities, posing a direct threat to LGBTQ+ Americans.”

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Author: Greg Owen