Gay Dad Punches Right-wing Commentator After Being Tricked Into A Homophobic Interview

A gay dad of an infant has been charged with a felony after an altercation with a right-wing media personality who questioned his and his husband’s ability to raise a baby without a mother.

Video circulating on social media shows Anthony Vulin, a member of West Hollywood’s Business License Commission, and his husband, David Vulin, being interviewed by anti-LGBTQ+ commentator Ryley Niemi. Anthony Vulin told the WeHo Times that the interview team lied to the couple and told them they were from CNN.

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“We were walking home on Santa Monica Boulevard,” he said. “There were four guys – three of them had cameras and one of them had a suit on and a mic. They said they were from CNN and wanted to talk to us about our baby.”

But it soon became clear the interviewer was not from CNN as he began to ask them hostile and homophobic questions.

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“Have you ever heard about the statistics coming out that gay men are much more likely to commit child molestation?” Niemi asked.

The couple looked shocked and simply said they did not, and that it sounded “crazy.”

Niemi kept going. “Don’t you think it’s weird that you guys have a child but neither of you are a woman?” he asked.

Anthony Vulin, who was holding his baby, continued to smile uncomfortably and said no. The couple then stared in stunned silence as Niemi asked if they used a surrogate. When they didn’t reply, Niemi added, “You paid a woman $50,000 to be pregnant?”

At that, the couple had had enough.

They began to walk away as David Vulin shouted, “Who the f**k are you? I’m gonna f**king kick your a**.” David Vulin then shoved Niemi.

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A post shared by Ryley Niemi (@ryley.niemi)

In a follow-up video, Niemi claimed the couple then followed him down the sidewalk, but it’s hard to know for sure what happened since the original video he posted cuts from David Vulin shoving him to the next confrontation. In that moment, Niemi said he was worried about the baby’s safety, and an unidentified person in a green sweatshirt defended the couple, shouting to Niemi, “We are asking you to leave!”

At that, David Vulin lunged at Niemi and punched him in the head. The video then cuts to the unidentified person telling Niemi and his team that they all deserve to be killed.

“Just another death threat from the left,” Niemi wrote on the clip’s overlay.

David Vulin was arrested for assaulting Niemi but released after about 12 hours, according to Anthony Vulin. He was ultimately charged with a felony for “vandalism with loss valued equal or greater than $400” for allegedly damaging a camera. Anthony Vulin told the WeHo Times he did no such thing.

Niemi also claimed in the follow-up video that he tried to de-escalate the situation and claimed the couple “seemed to not care for their own baby’s safety.”

“If we were men who were morally delinquent, we may have fought back and hurt that baby,” he said. “But we do not do that.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ryley Niemi (@ryley.niemi)

Some of the comments on both of Niemi’s posts – even from conservatives – expressed solidarity with the Vulins, acknowledging that assault is never the answer but scorning the commentator for confronting the couple and baiting them with homophobic questions.

“This isn’t a real conversation,” one person wrote. “It’s staged provocation. Approaching a family with a baby and pressing them with loaded accusing questions isn’t a debate, it’s harassment for content. I’m conservative, and I draw a clear line here. You’re not engaging in good faith—you’re trying to provoke a reaction, then using that reaction to justify your narrative. Any parent will defend their child when they feel targeted. That’s not political—that’s basic instinct. This doesn’t create understanding—it just fuels division. If the goal is attention, it works. If the goal is anything meaningful, it fails.”

Another wrote, “Come on, man, I’m trying to be on your side here, but you went up to a couple and made some very hard accusations to their face, even going as far as to imply they were involved. That’s genuinely incredibly rude and feels like you’re stooping to the level of crazed leftists.”

A third added, “Go ask a straight couple questions implying they molest their newborn and I guarantee you the man will immediately behave aggressively to defend his family. That’s what happened in this video. You are completely blinded by a false narrative.”

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