Andrew Shirvell, assistant attorney general to Attorney General Mike Cox has come under fire for a blog he maintains that derides and ridicules a University of Michigan student leader for being gay.
Shirvell has taken leave after a week of intense heat over the blog, and his boss Cox says he will not fire him over the incident. While he admits that Shirvell’s behavior is “immature” and he has been “acting like a bully” Cox maintains that because it is a blog that is written in Shirvell’s own time, his rights to freedom of speech and expression are protected under the First Amendment.
The blog in question, which was shut down on Thursday is called ‘Chris Armstrong Watch’ and accuses him of being anti-Christian, promoting a gay agenda and further called the U-M student body president "a radical homosexual activist, racist, elitist and liar… Satan's representative on the student assembly.”
There has been intense pressure on Cox to fire Shrivell, but Cox, despite repeatedly rebuking the assistant refused to fire him on the basis that all activity was carried out after-hours, and thus was protected.
Armstrong has taken out personal protection
orders against Shirvell, who has been banned from the U-M campus. Shirvell is
also subject to an ongoing harassment and stalking investigation around his
activities. Others have questioned whether he is competent to do his job,
whether he can represent gays in the stated after having come out with such
strong vitriol against them.
