The brewer won't discuss its sponsorship, but conservative groups are sounding off. "Now, Anheuser-Busch is selling to sado-masochists," says Peter LaBarbera, president of an anti-gay group called Americans for Truth, in Washington. "Apparently, there's no limit to who corporate America will market to these days."

The leather connection is part of the brewer's belated, but aggressive, campaign to tap the gay market. A decade ago, advertising agency executive warned that ads in gay media would simply detract from beer's machoimage.

But in the mature beer market, niches matter more now, and brewers are competing fiercely for gay drinkers. About 38 per cent of gay men and lesbians drink light US domestic beers, compared with 24 per cent of the overall population, according to a study by Simmons Market Research Bureau and MulryanNash, a gay ad agency.

There are political risks. Anheuser-Busch, Miller and Coors all have made a hit list of the 13 top "corporate sponsors of homosexuality," compiled by the Family Research Council, a non-profit conservative-advocacy group.

Although it's difficult to measure sales specifically to the gay market, many marketing experts and bar owners say Bud Light has surpassed Miller Lite in popularity in bars and stores in some major US cities. In April, Anheuser-Busch took over sponsorship of the International Gay Rodeo Association from Miller.

"Miller Brewing got into local marketing, which can be very piecemeal, and failed to maintain the national presence it had created," says Todd Evans,president of Rivendell Marketing Co., a gay-media placement firm in Westfield, New Jersey. Miller says its local bar promotions, sponsorships and advertising are effective, but declines to discuss sales.

The biggest marketing challenge for Adolph Coors Co. is increasing its availability in gay bars. Still suffering from a boycott that began in 1977 over alleged mistreatment of gay employees, Coors managers are visiting bars to get the word out that Coors wants their business and is the only major brewer offering domestic-partner benefits.

Corona and Amstel Light are popular with gay beer drinkers, along with a handful of specialty brews, including Gay Pride and Q (for queer). But it is the three largest US brewers putting big bucks behind the gay market.

Anheuser-Busch spent $260,000 last year advertising in Out and the Advocate, the US's two largest gay magazines, Competitive Media Reporting estimates. Miller, a unit of Philip sMorris Cos. spent $113,000, and Coors spent $32,000.

Anheuser-Busch isstirring publicity from its advertising. This spring, an ad showing two hand-holding men and the slogan, "Be yourself and make it a Bud Light," provoked a flurry of e-mail messages and phone calls from the religious right and gay consumers.

Some marketing consultants say Anheuser-Busch helped fuel the controversy by alerting gay organisations to the ad and the expected backlash. Anheuser had no comment. Bud has been slow to the market, says Bob Witeck, a partner in a Washington public-relations firm whose clients include Coors, "but now it's trumping everyone, especially with that hand-holding ad."