Donations pour in for gay dads with newborn after MAGA influencer clash. One faces felony charges [View all]

A gay West Hollywood couple is steadily gaining support — and funding for legal fees — after an altercation with a right-wing influencer resulted in a felony charge for one of the men.

David Miller-Robinson and Anthony Vulin were walking with their infant child on Santa Monica Boulevard last Thursday when they were approached by a camera crew claiming to be from CNN. Ryley Niemi, who self-identifies as a conservative political commentator, then proceeded to provoke the couple with targeted personal questions and a false claim about child molestation.

In a video posted to Niemi’s Instagram account, the influencer asks Miller-Robinson and Vulin, who is holding their baby, if they’ve heard that “gay men are statistically much more likely to commit child molestation.” The interaction quickly escalates when Niemi proceeds to ask the visibly alarmed parents if they think it’s “weird” that they have a child, but neither of them is a woman, and if they used a surrogate, which he calls “paying a woman $50,000 to be pregnant and build an emotional connection to a baby.”

After the video shows the couple walking away from Niemi, with Miller-Robinson, who is guiding a stroller, pushing him away at one point, it cuts to a group of bystanders and two security guards getting involved. Niemi continues to provoke the men, saying, “I’m actually concerned for your baby’s, like, safety,” after which Miller-Robinson punches the influencer in the back of the head. At the same time, another man is repeatedly heard asking the camera crew to leave and later threatens the lingering group.

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Put a microphone in someone's hand or a a camera, have a Twitter (X) or Instagram account...journalist!