Alan Bounville and other activists get arrested at White House again

Alan Bounville

QueerRising founder Alan Bounville (who I last week mistakenly identified during the last incident as getting arrested at McCain’s office) and other activists forced the Park Service to call the Paddy Wagon out to the White House once again on Sunday. During an anti-Dont’-Ask-Don’t-Tell rally at the White House attended by, among others, former arrestee Dan Choi, former Democratic Presidential candidate Howard Dean, and Servicemembers Legal Defense Network President Aubrey Sarvis; Bounville and six other activists joined the pantheon of protesters who have chained themselves to White House in recent weeks over the law.

This came just days after Secretary of Defense Robert Gates asked Congress to delay repealing the military’s homophobic hiring practice while the Pentagon “studies” the 17 year old law.

Upon his release, Bounville, pictured top from a previous PWG (Protesting While Gay) arrest from this winter, said the following in a video posted exclusively up at Pam’s House Blend:

If someone is thinking this is not how social justice change actually happens, I would suggest that they look back and review history to see that the people themselves have to get involved in this way in order for the system to change…no excuses, no reasons any more (not to).

Other chained protesters included Anne Tischer, Nora Camp, Natasha Dillon, Iana DiBona, Mark Reed, and Ian Goldin. Mark was one of the early board members of the National Equality March, and has worked a lot with GetEQUAL before.

Meanwhile, Prahlad Jani–the Indian man who hasn’t eaten for 70 years–could soon be giving GetEQUAL, EAA, H.E.R.O. and QueerRising some advice on hunger striking!

yogi

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 4th, 2010 at 6:49 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.