In the PHL the gay rights movement is also gaining grounds inch by inch in Congress and the Media.
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Late this week, a federal court jury in Detroit awarded $4.5 million to Chris Armstrong, a recent graduate of the University of Michigan and the campus' first openly gay student body president, who was harassed and stalked by the former Michigan assistant attorney general Andrew Shirvell in early 2010.
Shirvell was fined on counts of defamation, stalking, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and invasion of privacy on Thursday. After Armstrong was elected student body president, Shirvell took to his personal blog called "The Chris Armstrong Watch" to write defamatory comments about the student, whom he accused of being a "radical homosexual activist, racist, elitist, and liar," and wrote about the student holding orgies and having sex in children's playgrounds and other public places.
Shirvell didn't stop at blog posts though. He eventually began following the student on campus and showing up at his house. The lawyer was temporarily banned from the University of Michigan campus at that time.
In a 2010 CNN interview, Shirvell tried to defend his actions saying, "I'm a Christian citizen exercising my First Amendment rights." CNN wrote that Shirvell pinpointed "Armstrong's push for gender-neutral campus housing as something he opposed. 'What we're talking about is any man or woman wanting to choose to live together,' he said. 'That's a radical redefinition of gender norms.'"
The lawyer was fired from the attorney general's office in 2010 for misusing his work day hours (which were paid for by state funds), as well as violating office polices and engaging in "borderline stalking behavior."
Shirvell could have prevented the multi-million dollar fine from the court. "'We've only always wanted Chris' name cleared,'" Armstrong's lawyer told CNN. "'All he (Shirvell) had to do was retract his lies' and Armstrong would have dropped the case.'"
Shirvell, who is currently unemployed, told the Associated Press on Friday that, "there's no way I could possibly ever pay such a judgment." Armstrong may not ever be paid the full award, but at least a federal court has ruled in his favor.
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