Mike Hot-Pence, the Pantsless Activist Who Looks Just Like Mike Pence, is the Hero America Needs Right Now
(Twitter/Mike Hot-Pence)
Planned Parenthood has received more than $50,000 donations in the name of “Mike Pence,” and it’s about to get a few more, thanks to this wonderful progressive activist who happens to look a whole lot like the vice president elect.
These are tough times, but in these trying times it is good to know that somewhere out there is a man who looks just like Mike Pence, who is walking around Times Square in the tightest of blue underpants, raising money for progressive causes like LGBTQ children and reproductive health care. His name is “Mike Hot-Pence,” and he’s what happens when a man with Mike Pence’s face decides to use that power for good.
According to People, actor and graphic designer Glen Pannell is a gay man who lives in New York and looks enough like the vice president elect that Mike Pence’s own mother would do a double-take. He has the same height, and the same silver-white hair. (Glen is better looking, though. With some slight styling changes, he could also make a decent Anderson Cooper impersonator.)
Pannell has family from Indiana and says he knew about Mike Pence and his homophobic policies well before the election. He dressed up as Pence as a joke for Halloween this year, because people had been saying how alike they looked. It was a fun Halloween night in New York for Pannell, but then just over a week later, on November 9, Pannell was stunned to hear that Pence and Donald Trump would be going to the White House.
”That night unfolded like the most excruciatingly long, slow gut punch,” he told People’s Kathy Ehrich Dowd. ”I never cried at work before, but now I can check off that box.”
Then he decided to go out and do something, so he put his conservative suit jacket and tie back on, along with the blue shorts, and he went to Times Square to collect donations for Planned Parenthood. He got more than $170 his first day.
And he’s still out there! Pannell’s new weekend hobby is dressing up as Mike Hot-Pence and collecting donations for charity. This weekend he’ll be in Times Square collecting for The Trevor Project.
Pannell is on Twitter as Mike Hot-Pence, and he deserves a round of applause for his clever performance of civil disobedience. And while he’s using his resemblance for charity instead of collecting tips for himself like most of the costumed folks in Times Square, it still seems like he should get something out of it for himself. Hamilton tickets, maybe?
