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09/29/2010
Video: It's nothing personal, says Michigan state official waging anti-gay personal attacks
Andrew Shirvell, an assistant attorney general for the state of Michigan attempts to justify his continued attacks against Chris Armstrong, the openly gay student assembly president at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor:
Using the Alliance Defense Fund's own attacks as a justification would be bad enough, considering how hostile that particular group is towards gay issues. But the thing is, ADF hasn't really even waged the sort of campaign against Chris Armstrong that Mr. Shirvell suggests. In reality, ADF's Armstrong mentions are limited to ONE tiny little item on their aggregation website, Alliance Alert, the majority of which is made up of a quote from an outside local news source:
University of Michigan’s first openly “gay” student body president ready to get to work for “gender-neutral” housing
AnnArbor.com: “[Chris] Armstrong is the first openly gay student body president the university has known . . . Armstrong cited two major goals: To establish plans for Saturday night meals at residence halls, and a gender-neutral option in university housing.”
[AllianceAlert.com]
So yea, clearly ADF is against the gender-neutral housing plan. But the fact is that this AllianceAlert site basically aggregates any news, pro- or anti-LGBT, that is in the cycle (see other examples here). It's not like ADF has put out a press release or lengthy commentary decrying Armstrong -- the above is where their Armstrong campaign begins and ends. So for Mr. Shirvell to try to pass the buck to ADF -- something he's done on his own site -- is a weak attempt to make his own actions seem somehow less extreme. Equally as weak and buck-passing as Mr. Shirvell's "it's politics, shit happens" approach.
In actuality, this is personal, Mr. Shirvell. Spine up and take personal responsibility!
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*UPDATE: We also have it on good word that Armstrong did not receive either endorsement or financial backing from The Victory Fund. VF doesn't endorse/fund student campaigns.
But hey, boring ol' facts -- you know? They get in the way of all that swastika-drawing fun.
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*UPDATE 2: This is the same Andrew Shirvell who, back in 2005, attacked a local pizza parlor because of a gay pride sticker on the establishment's door: Pizza parlor's gay sticker attacked; "Credit cards accepted" decal said fearful [G-A-Y]
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