4 Oct 2010
The Washington Times Daily
Michigan assistant attorney general defends his anti-gay blog as free speech.
LANSING, Mich. (AP)
An assistant attorney general is using his personal blog to target the openly gay leader of the University of Michigan’s student assembly, calling him a racist with a “radical homosexual agenda.” The lawyer claims that when he’s not at work, he has the right to say whatever he wants.
But the vociferous criticism has raised questions of just how far a civil servant can go, and whether A n d r e w Shirvell’s online attacks — which include putting a swastika over a gay-pride flag in a photo of 21year-old Chris Armstrong — should affect his job.
So far, Attorney General Mike Cox says no. Mr. Cox called Mr. Shirvell immature and his blog posts “distasteful,” but said he has the right to free speech. But Mr. Cox said he was troubled that the 30-year-old lawyer videotaped police breaking up a party at Mr. Armstrong’s offcampus home in Ann Arbor over Labor Day weekend.
“Part of the video is being outside this young man’s house at 1:30 on a Sunday morning. Clearly, I wouldn’t recommend that to any state employee to be doing,” Mr. Cox told the Associated Press on Thursday. “That being said . . . it’s not something where I can walk in one day and say, ‘I don’t like what he has on there, let’s broom him.’ He has First Amendment protections.”
Mr. Shirvell went on personal leave Thursday and is subject to a disciplinary hearing when he returns, Cox spokesman John Sellek said Friday. Personnel rules restricted Mr. Sellek from saying if Mr. Shirvell was on leave because of the outcry.
Mr. Shirvell posted the video on his blog, called Chris Armstrong Watch, which he began in April. In the Sept. 5 posting, he accused Mr. Armstrong of hosting the party with the intent to “liquor-up underage freshmen and promote homosexual activity in an effort to recruit them to the homosexual lifestyle.”
Mr. Shirvell has repeatedly called on Mr. Armstrong to resign. He has criticized Mr. Armstrong’s friends and put their Facebook postings on his blog.
The university on Thursday banned Mr. Shirvell from campus, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 2002, saying he was targeting the elected student body president “in a reprehensible manner.”
“As a community, we must not and will not accept displays of intolerance,” President Mary Sue Coleman said.
Mr. Shirvell didn’t respond to phone and e-mail messages from the AP. But he told CNN last Tuesday that he regards his antiArmstrong push as a political campaign, not a personal attack.
“This is just another tactic bringing awareness to what Chris really stands for,” Mr. Shirvell said. “The substance of the matter is, Chris Armstrong is a radical homosexual activist who got elected partly funded by the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund to promote a very deeply radical agenda at the University of Michigan. . . . I’m a Christian citizen exercising my First Amendment rights.”
Denis Dison, spokesman for the Washington-based organization, denied that the fund donated money to Mr. Armstrong’s campaign earlier this year. Mr. Dison said that Mr. Armstrong, who was an intern with the fund two summers ago, told him about Mr. Shirvell’s actions and he urged him to report Mr. Shirvell to police.
“It sounded like it was getting a little strange,” Mr. Dison said. “I think everyone thinks it has crossed the line.”
“If I’m a gay person living in Michigan, this does not instill confidence that the attorney general’s office has my best interests at heart,” he added. “It’s surprising that you would keep an employee who would damage the credibility of the work that you’re trying to do in the state.”
Mr. Armstrong has applied in Ann Arbor for a personal protection order, Mr. Sellek said. A hearing is scheduled for Monday.
Mr. Armstrong has publicly said little about Mr. Shirvell or the blog. During a student assembly meeting Monday, he said he wouldn’t “succumb to any unwarranted attacks,” according to the Michigan Daily newspaper.
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