A British LGBTQ magazine and Virgin Atlantic recently named trans woman Dylan Mulvaney “Woman of The Year.”
Mulvaney received the recognition at the Virgin Atlantic Attitude Awards in the United Kingdom Wednesday, an award show put on by LGBTQ “Attitude” magazine and sponsored by the British airline company.
At the podium, Mulvaney marveled at receiving the award, noting it had been only “560 days” since the biological male influencer came out as trans.
“I am so honored to be with you all tonight, and you know, some see me as the woman of the year, some see me as a woman of a year and some change, as I only publicly came out online 560 days ago, and some people don’t see me as a woman at all,” Mulvaney said.
The influencer noted how grateful she was to receive the “honor from a queer publication like Attitude” saying it “means so much more to me.”
In an Attitude mag piece recounting the winners from the evening, the outlet profiled Mulvaney, stating, “Through her ‘Days of Girlhood’ series, Dylan Mulvaney shared the everyday highs and lows of her transitioning experience with the world and gained 12 million followers in the process. Fame, advertising campaigns — and controversy — followed.”
While speaking, Mulvaney said “hateful” people had made things a struggle. “No matter how hard I try, or what I wear, or what I say, or what surgeries I get, I will never reach an acceptable version of womanhood by those hateful people’s standards, but as long as I have the queer community that sees me for my truth, I’m gonna be okay,” Mulvaney told the crowd.
Mulvaney also noted she was glad to receive the award in the U.K. as it helped her feel that she didn’t have “that baggage that I was carrying back in the U.S.”
“And I didn’t feel like the trans beer girl,” she said, adding, “You know, I didn’t walk into rooms and wonder, ‘Oh does that person hate me?’ I was just another gal walking around in a Burberry trench on her way to a West End musical.”
Mulvaney was referencing the backlask Bud Light received after the beer brand partnered with Mulvaney for an Instagram ad that featured customized beers cans with Mulvaney’s face.
