More detail on the Andrew Shirvell case, because CNN has more.
Shirvell was fired from his job in the attorney general’s office in 2010 after targeting the student leader online and in person — then lying about his actions to investigators, state Attorney General Mike Cox said at the time.
Shirvell “repeatedly violated office policies, engaged in borderline stalking behavior and inappropriately used state resources,” Cox said, referring to Shirvell’s activities during his work day.
Asked for specifics about Shirvell’s conduct, Armstrong lawyer Gordon said, “He said (Armstrong) had an orgy in a dorm room and sex in a park and that he had liquored up underage freshmen to recruit them to the ‘homosexual lifestyle.'”
Shirvell also referred to Armstrong as “Satan’s representative” on the Michigan Student Assembly, she said.
Why? All out of sheer hatred of gayitude because god?
Shirvell, himself a University of Michigan alumnus, told CNN that he is “100% confident that the verdict will be overturned on appeal.”
“I think the jury award is grossly excessive,” he said. “It’s absolutely outrageous. The jury’s verdict was a complete trampling of my First Amendment rights.”
His First Amendment rights to defame someone? Ain’t no such.
He told CNN in 2010 that Armstrong “is a radical homosexual activist who got elected … to promote a very deep, radical agenda at the University of Michigan.”
Uh huh – the same way I have a deep, crazed, radical agenda to convince people that relentless contempt for women is not a good thing for human flourishing.
Gordon [Armstrong’s lawyer] said that Shirvell’s claim is without merit. “It’s really simple,” she said. “Defamation refers to statements that are false that you say about another person. If you say my neighbor is having sex in a park with children, which is literally kind of what he said here, that is defamation. That is not First Amendment-protected. It’s not opinion. It’s provable as false. You can be held responsible financially.
“He wants to put all his crap — which is nothing but a bunch of fabricated lies — under the umbrella of the First Amendment. Shame on him.”
Especially since he was once an assistant attorney general.
Ah HAH! So you admit it?!?
😉
Literally kind of.
Lawyers.
Obsession? Paranoia? Is he in his right mind? It makes no sense to me. Religious fanaticism? Insanity brought on by contemplating the wicked ways of those evil homos? Morbid Bibliolatry? Anyway, I can’t stand any more of this. And it’s past my bedtime. You’re a genius, Ophelia. I don’t know how you can stand it. Amazing.
It’s literally sort of like Shirvell could have lied about Armstrong.
Being from Michigan, Ed Brayton covered this story in a series of posts back when it when it was happening. Shirvell is utterly unhinged. According to Ed, he “once organized a boycott and protests of an Ann Arbor pizza place because they had a rainbow sticker on their window.” The Daily Show once did a piece on Shirvell called “Look Who’s Stalking.”
It was depressing to see a news story on this judgement today titled something like “Gay Slur Leads to Huge Fine.” It was like the headline writer was purposely trying to downplay a campaign of harassment into just a single “slur.”
One particular evil homo, actually. One young, handsome, confident evil homo who he just could not stop thinking about, talking about, writing about, following around, imagining having wild, hot mansex… because he hates teh gays so very, very much because he’s so completely heterosexual. (Maybe someone should alert Roy Zimmerman?)
I don’t know if this is inappropiate but after watching the interview with Anderson Cooper I find it impossible to believe that this Shirvell guy isn’t gay, which makes things rather confusing and sad. Is he a fundamentalist? That would explain it.
Thanks, HH. I miss too many things because there are so many things!
That headline – in addition, it could be read as “slur by gay person” – that is one crappy headline.
I have a lot of sympathy for subeditors who have to come up with short, pithy headlines, and there’s no way a real headline could contain the whole “homophobic slander+stalking with serious potential to expose the victim to violence” story but “gay slur” isn’t just incomplete, it’s completely misleading.
Short pithy headline: “Crazy Homophobe gets comeuppance.”
If I were Armstrong, I’d be watching my back. This Shervill dude sounds seriously unhinged, and not in that exaggerated sort of way. I’m afraid he’d take the next step and try to eliminate this minion of Satan for good.
In a happier world, Shirvell and Delgaudio would meet, fall in love, and both retire from public service.