First Lady Heckled By GetEQUAL

The First Lady's speech at a Washington fundraiser was interrupted tonight by GetEQUAL member Ellen Sturz, who is pictured above at a 2012 protest outside a Los Angeles fundraiser for President Obama.

Obama was delivering a speech at a DNC event at a private home in Washington shortly after 6 p.m. when a protester began shouting for the president to sign an executive order to protect gay and lesbian rights, according to pool reports. “

One of the things I don’t do well is this,” Obama reportedly responded to loud applause. She then left the podium and walked toward the heckler, saying she could “listen to me or you can take the mic, but I’m leaving. You all decide. You have one choice.”

The protester was later identified as Ellen Sturtz, an activist for the pro-LGBT rights group GetEQUAL. The crowd begged for the first lady to stay and one woman near Sturtz shouted, “You need to go.” Sturtz was reportedly escorted out, identifying herself as a “lesbian looking for federal equality before I die.”

The Washington Post reports that GetEQUAL later contacted the White House press pool to state that Sturtz was calling for the president to sign an executive order banning anti-LGBT discrimination by federal contractors.