The mayor of Newport, Oregon, has been forced to step down after sharing a meme on Facebook which referred to Bud Light as “tranny fluid.”
Dean Sawyer, a former law enforcement officer, resigned from his position on Monday after Oregon Public Radio revealed that he had shared a number of memes that had been considered “offensive” in a private Facebook group.
The memes, which were shared in a group for current and former law enforcement officers called “LEO Only,” poked fun at transgender individuals, immigration, and other hot topics.
One such meme directly referenced the recent controversy with Bud Light and transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, showing a picture of a box of Bud Light captioned with the phrase: “I called AutoZone to order a case of tranny fluid and this is what I got.”
Since experiencing widespread controversy for parenting with influencer Dylan Mulvaney in April, Bud Light has suffered a significant drop in sales, with some weeks seeing a decline 31% over the previous year.
Another meme shared by Sawyer showed transgender swimmer Lia Thomas speaking in a post-race interview, with the meme implying Thomas had said “I won that woman’s swim race fair and square, if they don’t like it they can suck my dick.”
CM Hall, a city councillor and LGBTQ activist, said the memes were “punching down” and “further marginalising the marginalised” communities. “It’s contributing to harm and division,” she said, adding that she was “embarrassed by the Mayor’s hurtful online comments and mockery.”
Following the news of Sawyer’s social media history, Newport Oregon Pride organized a protest against him and demanded his resignation, with five of his six colleagues on the council attending the protest. After Councillor Dietmar Goebel and City Council President Jan Kaplan urged him to resign at the weekend, he finally stepped down on Monday.
“I am sorry – in its simplest and sincerest form,” he said in his resignation letter, adding that his “online persona” was “too polarising” to allow him to continue in the position of mayor. “I now realize that some of my actions and my words have hurt people I love and care about. This is something that I take full responsibility for,” Sawyer added.
Matt Diaz, the mayor of Baker City, Oregon, also announced his resignation this week, claiming that he could no longer afford to work in the position and support his family. However, his resignation followed weeks of pressure after he shared a meme that positioned four LGBT Pride flags in the shape of a swastika.
Diaz claimed last month that the meme was “meant to illustrate how the DEI or ‘woke’ ideology is being propagandized and militantly forced on American society,” clarifying that he was not a Nazi or Nazi sympathiser.
