Manhunt Needs A Wakeup Call
Share: 
14 August 2008 | 30 Comments
THE BOTTOM LINE: A portion of the money you give to Manhunt has gone and apparently will continue to go to conservative Republican causes.
Get this – the owner of Manhunt has given the legal maximum to the McCain campaign. If in the past we boycotted companies like Coors for working against gay rights, I think we need to hold members of our own community to an even higher standard – especially ones that make their money by facilitating gay sex!
So here’s what I’d like you to do… Use the customer service link on Manhunt to tell them what you think of their owner’s politics. They’re making $30 million a year off of us having sex, they should not be working against us.
Next, make it so your membership does not automatically renew – change it so you have to manually renew. If they haven’t fixed the problem by the time your membership renewal date rolls around, don’t pay them more until they’ve reversed their policies (a big contribution to the Democrats would be nice.)
And lastly, put something in your profile telling other people to write customer service as well. Let’s make it clear that if they want our money they cannot support people who don’t like gay people.
Yes, they have every right to be self-hating jerks, but not with our money. Use Adam4Adam instead (it’s free), or better yet BarebackRT – anything but Manhunt. Do not give your money to someone who is going to give even a cent of it to the Republicans and set our rights back even further!
UPDATE:
Just to make things perfectly clear… Here is where McCain stands on gay rights vs say abortion rights (which we know Republicans hate) in terms of whether he’d consider a running mate who was pro-choice or pro-gay…
I think it’s a fundamental tenet of our party to be pro-life but that does not mean we exclude people from our party that are pro-choice. And I think Ridge is a great example of that. Far more so than Bloomberg, because Bloomberg is pro-gay rights, you know, a number of other issues.
So there you have it – being pro-gay is an anathema to the guy – pro-life he can live with (surprisingly), but not pro-gay – god forbid! Which explains why it’s unforgivable for the owner of Manhunt to give him money (in case there was any question).
UPDATE #2:
Well, there’s been a big development… The guy who donated to McCain (Jonathan Crutchley) has stepped down from Manhunt’s board of directors. The problem is that he’s probably still the main recipient of Manhunt’s profits. To me, that’s a good first step, but it’s not over yet… I want to know when I give them money that none of it will get to Republicans.
A massive donation by Jonathan Crutchley to a very liberal gay cause would go a long way right now…
UPDATE #3:
I had this whole blog post written which I’m not going to publish. The bottom line is Manhunt is a bit of a divided company. It appears the a majority shareholder (Larry Basile) is pretty liberal, but his co-founder (Jonathan Crutchley) is a Log Cabin Republican who gives to conservative causes. While Crutchley has stepped down he will continue to get a huge share of Manhunt’s profits and will continue to give to causes most of us abhor.
Manhunt (the company) is hiding behind the excuse that the company didn’t give the money, an individual did, but for me the bottom line is that money from customers is going to people and causes most of their customers have huge problems with. Yes, Crutchley has the right to give the money, but he shouldn’t expect his customers to want to give him more money to give to conservative causes.
The company is also being completely rude to their customers who object. If you put anything about it in your profile (like “I won’t fuck Republicans who give money to McCain”) they remove it and send a pissy message saying Manhunt is not a political forum. To me that’s bullshit. If their profits can go to conservative political causes, then they should at least allow funny polticial commentary in profiles. And for god’s sake – APOLOGIZE! The letter they send is so fucking harsh and never once acknowleges that people have a completely understandable reason for being mad at them.
Basically, given how they’ve handled the situation they’re saying what Crutchley did is reasonable. I have a big problem with that. They need to be on their knees apologizing for his actions and separating themselves from him. They really need to buy him out, bu I understand that takes time.
Here’s what I urge all of you to do…
- Stop giving Manhunt money
- Try out other hookup sites like BarebackRT and Adam4Adam
- When you have to ask other Manhunt members to e-mail you pics, explain why you don’t have a paid membership.
IMHO, I don’t think a formal boycott of Manhunt will work. The issue is too complicated since there are liberals at Manhunt, and people feel sorry for the employees of Manhunt. As far as the employees I’m not too worried about them as a group – the jobs Manhunt will lose, some other hookup site will gain.
But don’t take this lying down… Please send a clear message that Jonathan Crutchley is a liability for Manhunt and the sooner they buy him out, the better…
Here’s an idea: why not delete your manhunt profile altogether and try to find your sex on another site? By keeping a profile on the site, whether it’s paid for or not, you are still supporting the site. You are still one of the thousands of guys they can claim as members in order to draw in more members.
The only thing that may make a statement to the owners of Manhunt and others like them–who wish to profit off gays while selling them out–is to leave the site in droves.
Being in a gay relationship, I am punished by U.S. tax laws which don’t recognize my legal marriage to another man. (Thanks to Bill Clinton, a Democrat who signed DOMA). Obama wants to raise taxes, and McCain wants to keep the current tax rates. Neither supports same-sex marriage. I’m not sure that either party is particularly appealing. At least with McCain’s tax rates, I can still afford to pay the “gay tax”. Obama would force me to pay even higher taxes, which would probably make me have to leave NYC.
It scares me that there are people out there who choose ONE issue and develop their entire political stance around it. In the last election, it was that polarization against gay issues which got Bush back in. Afterwards, the nation realized that a president has more far more important aspects to the job than simply being pro- or anti-s/s marriage. The economy and the war got worse, and MA, CA and NY proved that the president’s views have far less impact than the actions of individual states.
Since Obama’s stance on gay rights is only marginally better than McCain’s, the overwhelming remainder of political issues significantly outweigh my decision. I’d rather have McCain in office making significant improvements to this nation’s economy, ecology and foreign relations than Obama being inept at, well, everything except listening to lobbyists and his own PR people.
Of course, boycotting Manhunt would at least do as much toward advancing gay rights as that coca-cola boycott is doing for human rights in Tibet…
There’s another difference between the two candidates as well. Obama, just like almost every other prominent Democrat in the country (Clinton, Daschle, Kerry, Reid, Dean, etc.) really do support gay marriage but know it’s political suicide to say so, for fear of alientating swing voters. I know Al Gore had to spend most of 2000 doing the whole “I believe marriage is between a man and a woman,” thing when he was running for president and a year or two later attended Melissa Etheridge’s wedding and came out for gay marriage last year. McCain does not. He won’t go after us the way Bush did, but he’ll be more than happy to appoint justices in the mold of Scalia and Thomas who wouldn’t think twice about overturning Lawrence v. Texas.
Well if Manhunt itself as a business organization had made the donation, perhaps I could understand (though I doubt a VAST majority would feel strongly enough to boycott… if a small group of people were considered a majority just because they were *extremely* opinionated, Senator Clinton would be the next president)
But after reading the article and the link, the donation was made by a private individual who just happens to be the owner of manhunt. The donation had nothing to do with Manhunt, and there is no way to say whether his $2300 donation came from Manhunt proceeds or from selling an old Honda, not that it even matters.
It seems irresponsible to go shouting chicken little about a business that (arguably) benefits our quality of life. I’m sure that none of the websites you blog for would appreciate a boycott for any number of reasons based on YOUR political views. Or would you stand so firm if people inhibited YOUR income due to the political views of, say, your online server, IT person or any of your business partners?
The basic line is that there ARE many reasons why many people support McCain, some of whom are members of the gay community, whether you agree with them and their views or not. To stubbornly stamp your foot and discount people for simply not agreeing with you is not only un-democratic, it’s un-american! Its shows a hyper-inflated example of exactly what you blame the republicans for. I think we can ALL be more effective at promoting gay rights and issues in ways that do not attack others for their individual views.
Boycott the site if you are offended, surely. But in doing so, you are inviting everyone who disagrees with you to do the same to you. And that’s a dangerous stance for ANY minority to take.
@rawTOP – By saying he took profits from people who hate McCain is a bit of stereotyping the gay community yourself, don’t you think? There are plenty of Gay Republicans that agree with his other stances.
Neither Obama or McCain support Gay Marriage, I could see a bit better if one candidate did, but both of them don’t. At least McCain said he is against a ban on Gay Marriage made by the Government. That’s more improvement.
Remember, it was the democrats that instituted “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”. But what you’re doing now is picking on a private individual for supporting a Candidate he likes, while stereotyping the rest of us.
As for me, I’m an Independant, I’ve voted both Democrat, Republican, and Even the Green Party.
I got an email from customer service at Manhunt that the board asked Crutchley to step down and he did. Might be worth noting so nobody else stays mad… unless you know something else about what’s going on behind the scenes.
Just for the record, I’d gladly vote for Obama in 2012 or 2016 when he has more than two years experience in Washington. That’s like taking a mailroom clerk and making him CEO based upon his ‘vision’. Everybody has vision, but that doesn’t make them qualified to run a country! I’d feel more at ease with the Obama/Biden ticket if Obama promised to let his VP approve the big decisions for the first term.
As a Canadian I have seen this all before. What I learned is that the liberal left will say and do anything to get my vote. The issue of gay marriage was never about justice it was about votes in large cities (where most people live in Canada.) Now they are catering to sharia supporting Muslims – can you imagine what it is going to be like for a free gay man living under sharia? The liberal/left used us, just as you are being used by them. I have become a convinced libertarian. I am fed up with nanny state leftists telling me how to live and making me pay for it. BTW make sure you claim those referrals as income the IRS now has a whole department watching the web. I suggest you set your blog up as a company and begin writing off expenses against the business. As well, you can take advantage of small business tax savings. You might even think of incorporating in Delaware – taxes are much cheaper. Your an entrepeneur, I just don’t understand how you can follow a bunch of leftists who will tax the crap out of you and say you deserve it. Your blog is great – lots more sex please.
Thanks for your hard work on all our behalf.
Well, when they start talking about allowing sharia courts and telling you your taxes will pay for it, you’ll understand where I am coming from.
Is there any chance of someone creative using the fact the McCain’s campaign accepted money from a gay personal networking company against his campaign? What would the average Christian-fundamentalist social conservative think if they saw one page of manhunt classifieds? They’d probably turn green.
Time and time again it saddens my heart to see people vote against their best interests. Anyone that would vote for a conituation of the Bush administration deserves everything that they will get in the end.
ps. I really like your site.
Thanks for bringing up this issue. I had no idea. I will move over to Adam 4 adam and will let manhunt know why.
Political favor costs cash. If ManHunt’s owner(s) were concerned about the potential for additional restrictions on adult content under yet another ass backwards conservative administration, I don’t blame them for contributing. Money talks, and when you’re in the adult industry you’ve gotta be proactive when dealing with potential censors.
You’re right to be concerned, but not to conclude contributions to a campaign necessarily translate to outright endorsement.
You have got to be kidding about your advice for men to sign up with barebackrt.com. The owners and operators are the most dishonest, fraudulent group of imposters posing as “business owners” of a website. One of the many scams this website runs is routinely and arbitrarily deleting the accounts of members who have recently paid in full the cost for full membership to the site. When these victimized individuals attempt to call the website’s customer service number, they are immediately hung-up on as soon as they identify themselves. All emails to the website in order to inquire as to why their accounts were deleted, or any attempts made to obtain any monetary refund for their membership payments, are either simply ignored and unanswered, or these members receive a template generic response, citing “violation of site policies” which the member had never committed. Included in their list of fraudulent and illegal activities are the “buddy packs” which can be purchased to apply towards a friend’s account. After they receive monetary payment from one member for the buddy packs and after the packs are applied for full membership for another friend’s account, the friend’s account gets mysteriously deleted (again without any explanation or reason every being able to be obtained by the victim). IN addition, the paying member’s money never gets refunded, and when the paying member himself then attempts to obtain an explanation, HIS account then gets deleted. Apparently in Wet-Media, Inc.’s world (the overseeing corporation), illegally scamming and stealing from its customers is a daily routine. And as cowards and crooks do, they hide behind the skirttails of sheer avoidance and lying through their teeth. How ironic that they are so miserably attempting to run a “men4men” site. Please do not endorse this website to anyone, and please publicize this site’s victimization of its members. Several lawsuits are moving forward against these owners, and criminal charges are currently being investigated in regards to getting the owners incarcerated, which will not be difficult to do after all that he’s committed. Thank you.
[…] funny that someone at Manhunt is using the term “socially irresponsible”. Dude – your boss gives money to Republicans who fight against gay rights. That’s way more irresponsible than a porn star’s tank top could ever be. But lets move […]