In March of last year, John Oliver of Last Week Tonight released an illustrated children’s book fictionalizing the life of Vice President Mike Pence‘s family rabbit, depicting him as a gay bunny who falls in love with another rabbit. The book touches on themes of tolerance and democracy, and came out just one day before Pence’s daughter released her own Marlon Bundo children’s book.
After Robert Weaver of El Cajon, California finished reading Oliver’s A Day in the Life Of Marlon Bundo, he took to Twitter to demand that actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson‘s non-profit bow tie company make its own version of the colorful bow tie the rabbit wears in the story.
“I will buy one for all of the members of the Senate that support equal rights and beg them to wear them on the same day!” he tweeted.
@jessetyler Will you pretty, pretty, pretty please make a Marlon Bundo bow tie? I will buy one for all of the members of the Senate that support equal rights and beg them to wear them on the same day!
— Robert Weaver (@RobWeaverEC) May 21, 2018
Well, Weaver got his wish. LGBTQ activist Ferguson, known for his role in Modern Family, runs the non-profit Tie the Knot with his husband Justin Mikita. Self-described as “advocating for a more stylish and equal world,” Ferguson and Mikita collaborate with celebrities to design limited-edition bow ties, the profits of which go toward LGBTQ advocacy groups.
There is a Marlon Bundo bow tie! All proceeds go to help #LGBTQ youth at @TrevorProject and helping end the U.S. Aids epidemic at @AIDS_United. They're available at https://t.co/99ghRszPSl
— John Oliver (@iamjohnoliver) July 11, 2019
“We started off with the main objective of fighting for marriage equality, and now we are continuing the work to protect the rights we currently have while continuing to press further for more protection for the LGBTQ community,” Ferguson says.
“The moment I saw Marlon wore a bow tie, I felt like we had to create one for people to buy. Everyone on the Marlon Bundo team from John Oliver to [author] Jill Twiss were excited about the idea!”
The proceeds from the Marlon Bundo bow tie go toward the Trevor Project and AIDS United.
To get the bow tie yourself, Tie the Knot partners with The Tie Bar, a men’s accessories store with locations across the country. The DC Tie Bar location is in Logan Circle, and the Bundo bow ties have landed on the shelves, but get there quickly —Fergus and Mikita expect them to sell out. (When the bow tie was first released online three days ago, it sold out in 36 minutes.)
As far as Weaver’s wish? Mikita and Ferguson sent him a ton of Bundo bowties, and Weaver made sure they ended up on Capitol Hill.
The Tie Bar, 1431 P St. NW
Kalina Newman is an editorial fellow for Washingtonian. Previously, she covered metro news for the Boston Globe. Her work has appeared in ARLnow, DCist, and the Washington City Paper. Kalina graduated from Boston University in 2019 with a degree in journalism.
