President Obama was interrupted by a heckler during an LGBT Pride Month event in the East Room this evening, eventually ordering the guest removed.
Before protesting the heckler’s interruption with a series of “no, no, no,” Obama snapped, “You’re in my house!”
“You don’t — come on. It’s not — you know what, it’s not respectful when you get invited to somebody… You’re not going to — you’re not going to get a good response from me by interrupting me like this.”
The interrupter kept calling out “President Obama,” and the president replied, “No, no, no, no. No, no. No. Shame on you. You shouldn’t be doing this.”
“Can we escort this person out? Come on. You can either stay and be quiet, or we’ll have to take you out. All right, can we have this person removed, please?”
He then told the audience “as a general rule, I am just fine with a few hecklers — but not when I’m up in the house. You know what I mean? You know, my attitude is if you’re eating the hors d’oeuvres — you know what I’m saying?”
The heckler was an illegal immigrant transgender activist, Jennicet Gutierrez, who shouted, “President Obama, release all LGBTQ immigrants from detention and stop all deportations.” The group GetEQUAL said Gutierrez “could not celebrate while some 75 transgender detainees were still being exposed to assault and abuse in ICE custody at this very moment.”
“There is no pride in how LGBTQ and transgender immigrants are treated in this country,” Gutierrez said in a statement released by GetEQUAL. “If the president wants to celebrate with us, he should release the LGBTQ immigrants locked up in detention centers immediately.”
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