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By Shannon Power
Pop Culture & Entertainment Reporter
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It was a case of deja vu on social media as conservatives lashed out at a major brand collaborating with an LGBTQ+ person for Pride Month and called for its boycott.
In March 2023, a months-long furor started when the beer brand Bud Light hired transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney to promote its March Madness campaign. It also sent Mulvaney some personalized, not-for-sale cans of Bud Light with her face on them to commemorate the first birthday of her gender transition journey.
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This year people are unhappy that footwear brand UGG has teamed up with gender non-conforming comedian and actor, Alok Vaid-Menon, for its URSeen collection.
The aim of the collaboration was to create footwear that reflects authentic style, and confidence in dressing for yourself.
Alok, who uses they/them pronouns, also designed the limited edition URSeen dress after growing up in a small Texas town where it was not always safe to dress in gender non-conformist fashion.
"So much of my childhood was about hiding myself, having to cover up, disappear, to not draw attention to myself," they said in a statement on the UGG website.
"My goal with this was really to create a garment that actually celebrated queer bodies."
Alok also had a message for LGBTQ+ communities this Pride season and that was to "maintain their joy, despite and alongside everything."
Newsweek contacted UGG and Alok by email for comment.
Despite announcing the new partnership in early May, conservatives caught wind of the campaign and complained about it on social media.
They vented on X, formerly Twitter, where they also posted a quote incorrectly attributed to Alok.
"We officially have the Bud Light of 2024. UGG just partnered witg Alok Vaid-Menon for Pride Month 2024. Alok once said men should be allowed to use girIs restrooms because... 'little girIs are also kinky' and not innocent. #BoycottUGG. Make it trend (sic)," wrote the End Wokeness X account.
Libs of TikTok added: "The new face of UGG #BoycottUGG."
While another account commented: "Seriously @UGG this is the brand association you want?"
The full quote they are complaining about reads: "These days, the narrative is that freaky transgender people (or as they say 'crossdressers' will come into your bathrooms and abuse innocent little girls . . . There are no fairy tales and no princesses here. Little girls are also queer, trans, kinky, deviant, kind, mean, beautiful, ugly, tremendous, and peculiar. Your kids aren't as straight and narrow as you think they are, Like everybody else, I've been a cute little girl."
However, Alok has since said they did not write the post.
"These forces have misattributed a 2016 Facebook status about girlhood to me that I did not write. These words, ideas, and life experience are not mine. This status—an analysis of a film I haven't seen—was written by a former colleague who was born female. The author states this in the text ('I have been a cute little girl'). This has been glossed over and erased in order to demonize and discredit me," Alok wrote on their blog in 2021.
A recent study on the rights of LBGTQ+ people found that "relentless opposition is marring progress made towards equal rights" for those communities.
Conducted by advocacy group, ILGA World, the Laws on Us publication found a concerning level of regression regarding LGBTQ+ rights around the world.
"Every day, the lives of LGBTI people are used as wedge issues to distract, mobilise, and divide. In concerning times like these, it is paramount to have reliable evidence on the laws worldwide affecting our communities and a clear understanding of the challenges that lie ahead and around us," said ILGA World co-Secretaries General Luz Elena Aranda and Tuisina Ymania Brown in a statement to Newsweek.
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