This past year, Mulvaney was the subject of a months-long right wing harassment campaign after conservatives blew up over the fact that Bud Light had hired her for a single promotional video. (That onslaught of hate has only continued with conservative outrage over an Instagram post she did with Lady Gaga for International Women’s Day.) Though she didn’t reference the incident directly, Mulvaney stated that she felt “really responsible for the onslaught of transphobia” that resulted when corporations began pulling support from queer and trans talent. Accordingly, Mulvaney has started using her experiences to serve as a consultant for including trans people in marketing campaigns, which she described as “oddly very healing.”
Reflecting further on her time in the public eye, Mulvaney acknowledged that she could be “a little cringe,” but added, “I’m kind of owning that.” She said she doesn’t actually mind if people “shadily” send videos of her to their group chats, and that she resonated with a particular comment she once saw about her early online presence: “Let women be annoying.”
Mulvaney also shared her realization that “there is nothing wrong with hyperfemininity.” “It took a long time for me to realize that my interests, specifically the ones that do fall into the very feminine category, does not mean that I am perpetuating stereotypes so long as those things really do bring me joy,” she said.
Looking forward, Mulvaney, an accomplished singer, has developed a passion for advocating for trans people in theater. She shared that she has been able to audition for Broadway shows, allowing her to get a firsthand look at the ways in which the theater world is still unequipped to deal with trans performers. “I want to find the ways to fix that,” she said. “I want to watch trans people sing Rodgers and Hammerstein and Sondheim on stage and I want to see it soon. Sue me.” (We would like to see it, too!)
As for her hopes for year three, Mulvaney said that she wasn’t going to try to “force a theme,” but that she’d like “some healing in the media and some olive branches.” Her other wishes were both political (no more anti-trans bills) and personal (“I would like to laugh so hard and so frequently that I pee myself multiple times throughout the year, and my hormones have made my bladder a little bit harder to control so this is extremely possible”).
Mulvaney ended the video with a shout out to the LGBTQ+ youth mental health organization The Trevor Project, to whom she left a donation link in her bio, and said that she would be donating profits from her music to the organization through Pride Month.
“I want everything to hopefully be okay, eventually,” she said at the close of the video. “And we’re getting there. I love you so much. Here’s to many more years.”
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