ISSUES: Six Arrested In Front Of White House At DADT Protest

via Towleroad:

Over 100 people gathered in front of Lafayette Park by the White House to protest DADT. Six protesters handcuffed themselves to fence and were soon arrested and carted off to jail by U.S. Park Police. Get Equal confirms via Twitter that the six will spend the night in jail.

Get Equal reports the six were chanting "we will not, disappear. We'll remember, in November," when taken away by police.

The Dallas Voice reports that one arrested protester “was proud when they took him away! Even happier when they let him keep his cigarettes.”

Among those in attendance were Lt. Dan Choi and James Pietrangelo who you recall were both arrested recently after chaining themselves to the same fence in protest.

From Metro Weekly: "As Choi was speaking to the crowd in Lafayette Park across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, six activists -- Ann Tischer, Nora Camp, Alan Bounville, Natasha Dillon, Eiona DiBona & Mark Reed – wearing long-sleeved shirts to conceal their handcuffs, attached themselves to the same fence where Choi and Pietrangelo had been with four others two weeks ago."

Get Equal tweeted that Choi told the crowd: "President Obama, I would rather be a bugle for justice than a trumpet for your inaction."

Howard Dean made a surprise appearance at the protest and took to the megaphone with strong words of support for the repeal of DADT: "The truth is Dan Choi is here. If Dan Choi were still translating Arabic, we'd just be another step ahead of the game. We can't afford to lose any talented people. To kick talented people out of the United States military because they happen to be gay or lesbian makes no sense at all."