10 October 2010
8 octobre, 2010: Andrew Shirvell, I’m Man Enough for You
8 octobre, 2010
Andrew Shirvell, I’m Man Enough for You: A Dance in Commemoration of the Assistant Michigan Attorney General’s Voluntary Leave of Absence
This far from home, I feel somewhat powerless to respond to yet another example of homophobia in my home state. Andrew Shirvell has outdone many a
Republican politician in bigoted, fear-mongering, homophobic behavior
reminiscent of the bullies who smashed me up against lockers in the hallways of
my junior high school. But I escaped from that
world to a private arts academy in the north woods of Michigan and never looked
back. I escaped the fear that drives gay teens to commit suicide.
It is this issue that has motivated Chris Armstrong, University of Michigan’s first openly gay student body president, to break his silence about his own experience of being targeted online.
Quoting from Anderson Cooper’s website: “For months, Armstrong has been the subject of the blog “Chris Armstrong Watch” which is published by Andrew Shirvell, a lawyer in the Michigan attorney general’s office; Shirvell and Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox have both maintained that the blog is a personal project of Shirvell’s done during non-work hours and without any official resources.
Armstrong, a college senior, is University of
Michigan’s first openly gay student body president, and Shirvell is an alum of
the university who has taken issue with what Shirvell calls Armstrong’s
“radical homosexual agenda.”
After his blog garnered national media
attention in the past week, Shirvell placed it behind a privacy firewall,
making it only available to invited readers. The lawyer, who is an assistant
Michigan attorney general, has also taken a
voluntary leave of absence from his state job, according to the
Michigan AG’s office. Shirvell has also been barred from University of
Michigan’s campus, and Armstrong is seeking a personal protection order against
Shirvell.
In his first national interview about the situation, the college student told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that he did not ask to be the subject of Shirvell’s attention on- and offline. But Armstrong said he has decided to use the spotlight to try to reach other gay teens who may be going through something similar.
“Given what’s happened in the past week, and given the suicides that have happened in the past few weeks, it’s been, it’s been – it’s hard not to say something,” Armstrong explained. He added, “I felt like it was important for me to speak out as well just because I think that it’s important for them to understand that things can get better. And it’s important to know you can reach out in your community, you can reach out to friends and they can support you.”
In his sit-down with Cooper, Armstrong also discusses whether he’d ever met Shirvell previously, how Armstrong feels about Shirvell’s efforts to target some of Armstrong’s friends and Armstrong’s reaction to being branded a radical activist by Shirvell.”
So I have made a suite of dances expressing my feelings about this issue… and letting Andrew Shirvell know that I am man enough for him any day. Click here.