President Barack Obama has heckled by a transgender woman this afternoon, but quickly won support from his guests.
President Barack Obama has had more than his fair share of heckling. Usually it’s at a campaign event, but today was different.
During his annual LGBT Pride Month celebration, when the President invites leaders from the LGBT community for an afternoon of speeches and hors d’oeuvres, an undocumented transgender woman interrupted him.
“President Obama,” she repeated, “release all LGBTQ immigrants from detention and stop all deportations.”
“OK, you know what? No, no, no, no,”  Obama responded. “Hey,” he said, as Vice President Biden, apparently embarrassed, bent over. “Listen. You’re in my house,” the President scolded, to laughter from the crowd, then cheers and applause.
“It’s not respectful when you get invited to somebody,” President Obama said, trailing off. “You’re not going to get a good response from me by interrupting me like this,” a noticeably frustrated Obama continued.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” Obama continued, as the Vice President put both hands over his face. “Shame on you, you shouldn’t be doing this.”
The crowd began to chant, “O-bam-a!, O-bam-a!”
The President told her she could stay if she quieted down, but apparently she refused and was then escorted out, saying, “Not one more deportation.”
Obama joked, “My attitude is, when you’re eating the hors d’oeuvres…,” to which the crowd laughed. “You know what I’m saying? And drinkin’ the booze.”
Afterwards, the President said, “Anyway, where was I?” to which a guest replied, “We love you!”
“I love you back!,” Obama responded.
The heckler was later identified as Jennicet Gutiérrez, a member of LGBT and immigration rights group GetEQUAL, and NotOneMoreDeportation, which says it is “a campaign made of individuals, organizations, artists, and allies to expose, confront, and overcome unjust immigration laws.”
Gutiérrez said she could not celebrate while some 75 transgender detainees were still being exposed to assault and abuse in ICE custody at this very moment.
Watch:
On any given day there are about 267,000Â LGBT immigrants subject to deportation. For many if not most of them, deportation back to their native country can literally be a death sentence.
As it was happening, attendees and others responded via Twitter:
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