Get Equal “Kanyes” The President

Last night six activists from GetEqual–who you’ll remember from such hits as Dan Choi getting arrested chained to the White House and the ENDA sit-ins in Nancy Pelosi’s offices in San Francisco and DC–set up at a Barbara Boxer fundraiser that President Obama was speaking at and demanded answers about the slow down repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

From their press release:

Los Angeles, CA – Moments ago, several GetEQUAL activists interrupted President Obama during his speech at a fundraising reception for Senator Barbara Boxer in Los Angeles, expressing anger over the slow progress on repealing ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ this year and demanding that he repeal it.

GetEQUAL activists shouted, “what about ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’” and “it’s time for equality for all Americans.” The President, at one point bringing his remarks to a halt, said, “Barbara and I are supportive of repealing ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’.”

Activists David John Fleck, Dan Fotou, Laura Kanter, Zoe Nicholson, and Michelle Wright were then escorted out of the reception by security officers.

According to video posted by Real Clear Politics, the hijacking slowed the speech down about 11 or 12 minutes. The crowd became extremely agitated with the protesters, chanting “Yes we can!” to drown them out, but the President remained cordial eventually saying “we are going to repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’”

The protest comes on the heels of the President’s surprise signature of a Thursday night Executive Order demanding hospitals allow all family in to sick patients’ rooms–including same-sex partners and children of same-sex partners–and demanding they be allowed to make crucial medical decisions for their loved ones.

While this was a major victory for the LGBT civil rights movement, many organizers and leaders are cautioning activists to ‘keep your eyes on the prize,’ and not to let up pressuring the White House and Congress to move forward with two major job-saving bills: the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

The video is available here

h/t Karen Ocamb over at lgbtpov.com

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 20th, 2010 at 8:12 am and is filed under Politics & Activism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.