They lost their jobs after posting about Charlie Kirk, but some have no regrets

They lost their jobs after posting about Charlie Kirk, but some have no regrets

In September 2025, Gerald Bourguet believed he was finally living the life he had always wanted: he and his wife had purchased a house with a pool, they had just welcomed a baby boy, and he was working full-time writing about professional men's basketball.

That changed after he posted a series of messages online criticizing the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk, hours after Kirk was fatally shot on 10 September while speaking on the campus of Utah Valley University.

In those posts, Bourguet called Kirk an "evil man" and implied that he had devoted his life to hateful causes. He also took aim at Kirk's supporters, saying they had not been as outspoken about school shootings.

"I had seen the way that people were talking about this person - kind of eulogising him and lionising him and it bothered me based on a lot of the things that he had said," Bourguet told the BBC.

Kirk, who founded the Christian youth organisation Turning Point USA, was a polarising figure in US politics. To many on the political right, he was charismatic and unusually effective at making conservative ideas resonate with young people. To his critics, however, his remarks on issues ranging from race and immigration to gun control and gender identity were deeply offensive.

Screenshots of Bourguet's posts spread rapidly online. He was dismissed from his job, his home address was posted publicly, and he began receiving threatening text messages, he said. Fearing for their safety, the family left the state with their four-month-old baby. They later returned to sell the house and eventually moved away permanently.

A year later, he says he does not regret what he said, though he admits: "My life will never be the same after this".

"At age 35, I am having to start over in a lot of respects… I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy," Bourguet said from his new location, which the BBC agreed not to reveal.

PHNX Sports, Bourguet's former employer, did not reply to the BBC's request for comment.

Bourguet was among hundreds of people fired or disciplined over critical remarks about Kirk after his death. While some who lost their jobs have been reinstated or compensated - sometimes by millions - others, like Bourguet, have had to begin again from nothing.

In the wake of Kirk's assassination, most people kept their opinions private or shared them only with close friends.

But on highly polarised social media, users quickly rushed either to praise or condemn the controversial activist. Some said the criticism posted hours after his death was tasteless. Others demanded immediate punishment, saying the comments were cruel, mocking, and could even encourage more violence.

Laura Loomer, an influential right-wing commentator with nearly 2 million followers on X, warned Kirk's critics to "prepare to have your whole future professional aspirations ruined".

The drive for punishment also came from the highest levels of the US government.

"When you see someone celebrating Charlie's murder, call them out," Vice-President JD Vance said days after the assassination. "And hell, call their employer," he added.

White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told the BBC: "Anyone who engages in or endorses political violence or assassination culture must be condemned in the harshest terms possible."

Critics on the left argued there was a distinction between criticizing Kirk and celebrating his death. Some accused conservative leaders of hypocrisy, noting that many had previously complained about "cancel culture" - the phenomenon in which people who express controversial views face serious professional and social consequences.

"Cancel culture can be good, it's bad when it's applied in the wrong ways," Jordan Pace, a Republican member of the South Carolina House of Representatives, told the BBC. "If you are someone who celebrates political assassinations and the murder of an innocent man with two young children in a way that many people did, then yeah, that's an appropriate way for society to function, to shame those people."

Pace had earlier called for universities in his state to be defunded if they did not act against employees who commented on Kirk. One of his posts was reshared by US President Donald Trump.

Across the country, some employers - both private and public - moved quickly in response to the pressure campaign. Reliable totals for how many people were fired or disciplined are difficult to establish, but a Reuters count last November found more than 600 cases. That figure is likely low, since not every case received national or local coverage.

The conduct that triggered discipline varied widely. In Tennessee, anthropology professor Tamar Shirinian was suspended and later fired after a Facebook comment saying "the world is better off" without Kirk.

A Delta Air Lines flight attendant was fired after writing "good riddance" in response to Kirk's killing. Office Depot fired an employee for refusing to help a customer who wanted to print flyers for a Kirk vigil. Delta Air Lines declined to comment. Office Depot did not respond to a request for comment.

Others were punished even though they did not directly comment on Kirk or his death. Darren Michael, a theatre professor in Tennessee, was fired after posting a screenshot of a 2023 news article about Kirk's controversial remarks on gun control. In that article, Kirk is quoted as saying protecting citizens' right to own guns was worth it even if it caused some gun deaths each year.

Florida's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission fired biologist Brittney Brown after she reposted a meme that also mocked Kirk's stance on gun violence in light of his own shooting.

"I was absolutely gutted," Brown said of her firing to the BBC. "It was like the entire world just completely flipped on its head in a moment."

In the year since Kirk's killing, dozens of lawsuits have been filed nationwide by people fired for comments about the activist, arguing their dismissals violated free-speech rights. In some cases, those suits have produced substantial payouts.

Brown accepted a $485,000 (£355,000) financial settlement - about 12 times Brown's annual salary.

Darren Michael was reinstated by Austin Peay State University, and in January the school agreed to pay him $500,000 to settle legal claims. The school did not respond to a request for comment.

In the largest settlement reviewed by the BBC, the University of Tennessee agreed to pay $1.9m to resolve a lawsuit filed by anthropologist Tamar Shirinian over her "better off" comment. Under the settlement, she will not be reinstated and has agreed not to reapply for future positions at the university.

Recently, an arbitrator ordered The Washington Post to rehire opinion journalist Karen Attiah with back pay after she was fired for online posts that said in part she was not going to engage in "performative mourning for a white man that espoused violence".

The BBC found that several other lawsuits are still pending.

Most of the legal challenges have been brought by employees of government institutions or unionised workers, who have some free-speech protections.

But in the US, most private-sector workers are employed under "at-will" contracts, meaning they can be fired without cause.

Even those who have won some form of relief do not necessarily view it as a victory.

"All I wanted was my job back," biologist Brown said. "How much taxpayer money did they waste on this when I barely made $40,000 a year? So no, it does not feel like justice."

Shirinian told the BBC that she too had wanted to return to her job, but believed a legal fight could take a long time.

"I took a settlement because this allows me to move on with my life," she told the BBC. "The one small regret that I have is that I will not see my day in court and justice will not be served in that way. But I think that the number of the settlement actually speaks to that anyway."

The University of Tennessee and Florida's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission did not respond to the BBC's request for comment.

As an at-will employee at a private company, Bourguet is unlikely to succeed in a lawsuit challenging his firing. A year later, he says he has had trouble finding work. The new state where he lives has a professional basketball team, but he believes the episode has made him unemployable in the small world of sports writers. Instead, he has launched his own podcast, though he doubts it will bring in enough money to cover his expenses.

"I have accepted that that life is over and that I need to start a new one." He said leaving the country is now an option.

Despite the heavy personal and professional toll, those who spoke to the BBC said that after months of reflection, they still did not regret what they had done.

"I have a right to say what I want to say," Brown said. "They are the ones who should have the regrets, not me," she said, referring to her former employer.

Shirinian apologised to the university days after her suspension. She told the BBC that her comment was "an emotional outburst" that was not meant to be public and that she regretted the tone she used.

"I don't regret the sentiment, however" she said, adding "the sentiment was that I am not sad. And I refuse to be made to feel like I have to be sad that someone who was so hateful was killed".

Bourguet also said he does not regret his remarks, though he has mixed feelings about what followed.

"I don't regret that line of thinking because I think it's important to push back on things that are steeped in hatred," he said, referring to Kirk's political message.

"I don't regret what I said. I don't regret the way that I said it. I do regret the ripple effects that came from it and the way that they impacted me, my career, my family, and my son."