Trans actor and ex-Bud Light endorser Ian Harvie: ‘I don’t believe in the allyship of Anheuser-Busch’

“It was about the dollars for me too, honestly,” he said. “I’m a working comic actor. I was thrilled to be in the presence of Amy Schumer and glad to get a nice paycheck from that. I’m 30 years sober—I don’t even drink. I didn’t believe in the allyship from the get-go.”

Anheuser-Busch InBev declined to comment for this story.

The 2016 spot (which you can see below) had Seth Rogen and Amy Schumer saying that Bud Light is not just for men and women but for “people of all genders.” It didn’t actually feature the word “transgender,” but Schumer does say, “Gender identity—it’s really a spectrum, and we don’t need these labels.” And Rogen adds: “Beer should have labels, not people.”

“We don’t care. We’ll sell you a beer,” Rogen says at the end.

The ad was part of a larger campaign from Widen+Kennedy New York called “Bud Light Party,” which took a whimsical approach, mocking political ads but also connecting the brand to socially progressive causes as it suggested it was a beer for everyone. 

The transgender spot got support from gay rights group GLAAD and drew little wider criticism at the time. Asked about that, Harvie said there are two main differences between that spot and Mulvaney’s Instagram posts. First, he said, trans women are the subject of much more hate than trans men.

“As much as I do feel scared and in danger—I just traveled to Florida, and my eyes were peeled for sure—the truth is that transphobic responses are so much more visceral around trans women than trans men,” he said. “This is largely rooted in misogyny and transphobia combined.”

Harvie added that most people watching the 2016 spot probably didn’t even realize he was trans. “I think people would have had a hard time going, ‘Wait, who’s the person I’m supposed to hate here?’” he said.

Though Bud Light sales are down over the past month, Harvie believes it’s not actually about Bud Light at all. “The truth is that Kid Rock and his followers are still going to drink it,” he said. “They’re going to scream about it, but they’ll keep drinking it. It doesn’t change the taste or the price point for them. They’re not microbrew-heads.”

It’s the larger issue of trans rights that’s important, he added. And when it comes to that battle, he believes conservatives are out of step with public sentiment and on the wrong side of history—much as he believes they are on abortion as well, another divisive issue of body autonomy.

“We are now in the part of the movement where most people actually know someone trans or non-binary,” he said. “Someone in their family, a co-worker, someone has come out. And so my hope is that those people who know someone are going to the polls and they’re going to stand up for them. That is my hope.”