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Manhunt Chair Steps Down for Donating to McCain

The chairman of popular gay dating website Manhunt has stepped down after allegations that he had maxed out in campaign contributions for Republican presidential candidate John McCain.


The chairman of popular gay dating website Manhunt has stepped down after allegations that he had maxed out in campaign contributions for Republican presidential candidate John McCain. Jonathan Crutchley was reported to have donated $2,300 to the McCain campaign. Manhunt founder Larry Basile confirmed in a statement obtained by Towleroad.com Friday that Crutchley stepped down once subscribers learned about the donations.

In the statement posted on Towleroad.com, Basile said that while he has been an avid activist for liberal causes and has donated regularly to Democratic contender Barack Obama, Crutchley's support for McCain "left the board in disbelief. I am disappointed that we have lost some customers, and I understand the anger. It is too bad for the website if we lose customers, but please never refer to me as a Republican. I consider it an offense." (The Advocate)

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Reader Comments
  • Name: Larenzo
    Date posted: 8/29/2008 7:40:00 PM
    Hometown: South Florida

    Comment:

    I mean for real, c'mon, Just b/c you wanna support one , means you gotta support both! Think about where your throwing your money....not to mention his running mate is totally agains same sex anything! Get with it MaaaaaanHunt! IF i were a member..which i'm not, I'd def leave.....

  • Name: John
    Date posted: 8/24/2008 2:07:00 PM
    Hometown: Indianapolis, IN

    Comment:

    Crutchly and Manhunt have both made foolish decisions. I strongly support his right to donate to whomever he wants, however. There are many reasons not to give money to Manhunt, an his supporting McCain is the least of them. The most telling insight here is the response of Manhunt, Crutchly and Basile. It seems clear that they are more than willing to compromise their own integrity for money. The right thing to do would have been for Crutchly to support and stand firmly behind his position--regardless of whether or not he resigned. Additionally, Basile should have first supported Crutchly's rights and strongly. If he wanted to clarify his own position as a democrat, that's fine, but let's not lie for profit. Of course, Manhunt is already a seedy and disgusting enterprise. I suppose someone is going to run such a business while there is profit to be made. Expecting those people to be upstanding is a bit of a joke though. Some people will do anything for money.

  • Name: John
    Date posted: 8/24/2008 2:04:00 PM
    Hometown: Indianapolis, IN

    Comment:

    Crutchly and Manhunt have both made foolish decisions. I strongly support his right to donate to whomever he wants, however. There are many reasons not to give money to Manhunt, an his supporting McCain is the least of them. The most telling insight here is the response of Manhunt, Crutchly and Basile. It seems clear that they are more than willing to compromise their own integrity for money. The right thing to do would have been for Crutchly to support and stand firmly behind his position--regardless of whether or not he resigned. Additionally, Basile should have first supported Crutchly's rights and strongly. If he wanted to clarify his own position as a democrat, that's fine, but let's not lie for profit. Of course, Manhunt is already a seedy and disgusting enterprise. I suppose someone is going to run such a business while there is profit to be made. Expecting those people to be upstanding is a bit of a joke though. Some people will do anything for money.

  • Name: Danny Boghen
    Date posted: 8/21/2008 7:02:00 PM
    Hometown: Montreal, Quebec

    Comment:

    What if a member of the "board" at Coca-Cola, or Starbucks, or Costco, or Budweiser, or the company you work for, made a contribution to the Republican Party and John McCain? Would you boycott their products or quit? Probably not, and yet you have contributed your "gay" or "non-gay" dollars to them. Manhunt is a company that, being gay-owned and geared towards the gay community and interests, should probably be all that more careful of their political contributions and thus affiliations. However, corporate America has your money and, if they are allowed to spend and contribute at will, then everyone should have that right. Stupid move? Yes. A little condemnation? O.K. All out boycott? No.

  • Name: Jerry Manning
    Date posted: 8/20/2008 2:30:00 AM
    Hometown: Seattle

    Comment:

    The depth of Crutchley's political ignorance is almost as astonishing as his lack of business acumen. Lesson #1 at any B School - don't thumb your nose at your customers. Saddened here that so many on this site actually defend Crutchely and Manhunt. Down right pitiful that so many on this site support McShame or have bf's that do. Really? You're gay and a Republican? Gentlemen, it's not even debatable.

  • Name: Don Anderson
    Date posted: 8/19/2008 2:50:00 PM
    Hometown: puerto vallarta, mexico

    Comment:

    i don't understand why some people "just don't see it". just a few examples; i still don't drink florida orange juice or coors beer. i don't watch any fox stations or read news corp publications. and i stopped supporting hrc when elizabeth birch and the hrc supported al d'amato's bid for relection as senator of ny state.

  • Name: Doug Johnson
    Date posted: 8/19/2008 11:59:00 AM
    Hometown: Sioux Falls, SD

    Comment:

    Let me add my tardy whine to all the rest. It seems we are always saddled with choosing the lesser of two evils when election rolls around. It's the same now and, for me, Obama is the lesser of the two.

  • Name: Jay
    Date posted: 8/19/2008 9:15:00 AM
    Hometown: New Orleans

    Comment:

    To those of you who defend Crutchley by pointing out that Obama is not perfect are utterly stupid. The contrast between Obama and McCain on gay rights is as clear as the difference between day and night. McCain talks about how much he admires Scalia and Thomas (who voted to uphold sodomy laws), votes against every proposed law that might help the gay community, and suddenly believes that the "sanctity of marriage" means that Proposition 8 in California (which would ban same-sex marriage) should be passed. In this climate, any homosexual who supports McCain must be self-hating indeed.

  • Name: Joe
    Date posted: 8/19/2008 7:41:00 AM
    Hometown: Chicago, IL

    Comment:

    I am no McCain fan either, but Obama has no plans to help out our community. He keeps associating himself with hate mongers and the media gives him a pass. He has credit card company executives, oil company advisors and energy company executives on his board of advisors. Credit card executives who want to continue to squeeze every penny out of us and get assistance from our governmet, oil executives who make obscene amounts of money and claim they can't do anything about the price of gas and energy executives who benefit from legislation Obama waters down for them. At least with McCain and Hillary we know what we were getting. This guys got the wool pulled over our eyes and we punish anyone who disagrees.

  • Name: Joseph
    Date posted: 8/19/2008 3:22:00 AM
    Hometown: Montgomery, AL

    Comment:

    Well, hey while we're at it guys, don't forget that Obama isn't all that great for the LGBT community either. The SOB just reminded us all that HE thinks marriage should be between a man and a woman, that it's a part of God's plan. And you idiots really think that Obama's going to go to bat for the LGBT community, especially after his SUPPORT of the FISA compromise? Please. I'm no fan of McCain's but I haven't seen Obama doing too much to go out of his way in support of the LGBT community. This is the same man who PERSONALLY brought in Donnie McClurkin for that little tour of South Carolina last year to get the Black Evangelicals (after Obama learned of McClurkin's views, he claimed to not know them; he only wanted McClurkin because of his popularity among Black Evangelicals). There's a saying, "Better the devil you know". We've survived the Bush administration. We can survive a McCain administration as well.

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