Andrew Shirvell, the former Michigan Assistant Attorney General who was booted for harassing the student body president of the University of Michigan, Chris Armstrong, for being gay, is arguing that Armstrong’s “course of conduct” and lawsuit against him are “politically motivated and intended to make an example out of [Shirvell] in order to deter others from criticizing [Armstrong]’s homosexual activist agenda.”Armstrong filed a lawsuit in April asking for more than $25,000 in damages for “defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, abuse of process, invasion of privacy, and stalking,” after Shirvell wrote a series of blog posts that attacked Armstrong for being gay. Among other things, Shirvell repeatedly described him as “a radical homosexual activist,” and photoshopped a picture of Armstrong next to a rainbow flag with a swastika in the middle. Shirvell would also show up at school events and parties to picket, based on information gleaned from Armstrong’s Facebook activities.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=111709