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

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.

Following the incident, the couple went directly to the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station, according to WEHOonline, where police initially brought up the possibility of a hate crime. Authorities ultimately arrested Miller-Robinson at the station, and he was booked on suspicion of misdemeanor battery and felony vandalism, partially as a result of Niemi claiming that a $2,500 camera had been damaged. The vandalism allegation hinges on that claim, which would need to be substantiated for the felony charge to hold. Though the couple disputes damaging any equipment, and there’s no evidence of Niemi’s claim in the initial video or a follow-up video he posted on Monday.

In response to the events, Vulin, a realtor who is on the West Hollywood Business License Commission, has set up a GoFundMe to help pay for Miller-Robinson’s expected legal fees. On Tuesday morning, donations passed the $50,000 mark, swiftly climbing to the initial fundraising goal of $55,000, with amounts ranging from $15 to $500 being added every few minutes. By Tuesday evening, the fundraiser had reached more than $63,000.

On the GoFundMe page, Vulin wrote that he and his family are facing “an unexpected and deeply difficult legal situation that arose after a hostile and discriminatory encounter,” emphasizing that the incident happened in their historically gay neighborhood, during their regular nightly walk.

“As a gay couple with our newborn baby, we were targeted in a way that was deeply upsetting and destabilizing for our family. My husband and I have fought incredibly hard to build the life we have today and to welcome our baby into it, which makes this moment especially painful and overwhelming,” Vulin wrote. “As a result, my husband, David, is now facing a legal process, and the cost of securing proper representation is significant.”

According to WEHOonline, attorney meetings were scheduled for Monday, and a formal statement can be expected sometime this week. It remains unclear whether prosecutors will pursue the felony charge or reduce it after reviewing available video and witness accounts.

A competing GoFundMe, entitled “MAGA influencer violently attacked by LGBTQ couple,” was set up by the right-wing media organization Off The Record USA on Niemi’s behalf late last week. The campaign, which repeated the claim that camera equipment was damaged, had raised less than $2,000 of its $9,000 goal as of Tuesday evening.