Americaβs oldest brewery has come under fire from a number of customers and a local politician after its owner voiced his support for Donald Trump.
On Monday, Dick Yuengling Jr. told Trumpβs son, Eric, that he and his employees were βbehindβ the Republican nominee, the Reading Eagle reports. The remarks came after Eric Trump toured D.G. Yuengling & Sonβs brewery in Pottsville, Pennsylvania while campaigning on behalf of his father. βWe need him in there,β Yuengling reportedly told Trump during the tour.
News of Yuenglingβs endorsement infuriated some patrons, who took to Twitter and other social media outlets to express their distaste for the move. Among them was Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Sims (D-Philadelphia), who called himself a βformer customerβ and blasted the brewery for using βmy dollars to bolster a man, and an agenda, that wants to punish me for being a member of the LGBT community and punish the black and brown members of my community for not being whiteβ in an Oct. 26 Facebook post.
Later on Wednesday, Sims posted a photo of the breweryβs owner posing with Eric Trump on Facebook, accompanied by a caption asking Philadelphiaβs gay-owned establishments to boycott Yuengling products.
βOur communities know a thing or two about voting with our dollars,β Sims, who became his stateβs first openly gay elected state legislator in 2012, wrote in the post, βand I wonβt be using my hard-earned dollars to give power to any company or person who hates me.β
The Democrat elaborated further in an email sent to The Huffington Post, saying that like all Americans, Yuengling is entitled to support the presidential candidate of his choice, but that customers βhave just as much of a right, perhaps an obligation, to decide if we agree and want to continue funding it.β
βIn the era of Hobby Lobby and Citizenβs United, dollars that we spend now have the potential to be used against our interests and our values,β he said Thursday. βWhy would anyone give money to a company that would pass it along to those who want to strip them of their rights, torture their children, belittle their family members and neighbors, or denigrate their relationships?β
Whether or not the boycott will succeed remains to be seen. For now, however, those soured by Yuenglingβs Trump endorsement can look to Philadelphia-based blog Billy Penn, which has compiled a comprehensive list of brews that have thus far steered relatively clear of politics. Thereβs also Bud Light, which celebrated the one-year anniversary of marriage equality in the U.S. with a cheeky commercial starring Seth Rogen and Amy Schumer in June.
Editorβs note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims β 1.6 billion members of an entire religion β from entering the U.S.
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