Catholic League president Bill Donohue wrote the following letter to Brendan Whitworth, the CEO of Anheuser-Busch, explaining his concerns about the Human Rights Campaign pressuring him to stand by Dylan Mulvaney, the transgender person who ignited the Bud Light controversy.
May 1, 2023
Dear Mr. Whitworth:
Anheuser-Busch’s reputation has been taking a beating lately, due exclusively to the marketing decision to feature Dylan Mulvaney as a promoter of Bud Light. While it may take a while to regain your footing, it can happen quicker than most people think, provided you make the right move. That move would be to simply sell your beer, and stop engaging in controversial political and social issues. In short, to be officially neutral is the best policy.
My reason for writing is the news story, published by The Hill, which says that the nation’s largest LGBT organization, the Human Rights Campaign, is encouraging Anheuser-Busch to stand by the decision to feature Mulvaney.
This is disconcerting to Catholics, and for one very good reason: the Human Rights Campaign is the most vocal advocate of the Equality Act, the most anti-Catholic piece of legislation ever considered by the United States Congress.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has published the most definitive analysis of the Equality Act for the Catholic community. The following ten points are among their list of concerns.
• “It would likely require taxpayers to fund elective abortions, because of the way it redefines ‘sex’ discrimination.”
• “It would also likely force doctors and hospitals to perform abortions even if it’s against their conscience or beliefs.”
• “It would mandate that doctors and counselors—who help everyone in need regardless of their identifying as LGBT or otherwise—now perform and promote life-altering gender ‘transitions,’ even when they do not think it is in the best interests of their patient.”
• “It would shut down Catholic foster care and adoption agencies, which have helped children in need for over a century without discrimination, just for protecting the children’s rights to be in a home with a married mother and father.”
• “It would mandate that schools fully embrace and impose some children’s ‘gender identity’ on other children (in conversations, restrooms, etc.), likely punishing children who disagree.”
• “It could make schools change their curriculum to falsely teach children that they can change their sex, and
that doing so and that having same-sex relationships are the only way to go for some of them to be healthy.”
• “It could close Catholic girls’ schools and boys’ schools or make them co-ed.”
• “It would reinforce already-mounting efforts to strip churches, and religious schools, hospitals, and other charities, of their federal tax exemptions on the basis that their beliefs on marriage, sex, and gender are mere bigotry.”
• “It would prohibit free and truthful speech by requiring everyone to use others’ ‘preferred pronouns’ and show other support for gender ‘transition’ in workplaces, schools, and more.”
• “The Equality Act attacks religious freedom by making itself a special exception to the bipartisan Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which has never been done before.”
If Anheuser-Busch were to make an announcement that it will no longer align itself with any activist organization—whether it be the Human Rights Campaign or the Catholic League—it would not only get this monkey off its back, it would encourage all corporations to get back to what they do best: selling their products and services without taking sides on divisive political and social issues. That is a winning prescription.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
William A. Donohue, Ph.D.
President
