After a gay rights advocate kept interrupting her speech at a fundraiser on Tuesday First Lady Michelle Obama confronted the heckler and threatened to leave the event unless they stopped, CBS News reported.
According to the New York Times, Obama was about 12 minutes into her speech at a Democratic fundraiser when a woman in the front of the crowd of 200 began shouting for President Barack Obama to issue an order banning federal contractors from discriminating against employees based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
"One of the things I don't do well is this," Obama said, and the crowd responded with applause.
She said the protester could "listen to me, or you can take the mike, but I'm leaving. You all decide. You have one choice."
While the crowd yelled that they wanted Obama to stay, attendees escorted the woman out of the building, but that didn't stop her from continuing to yell in protest. The advocate identified herself as a "lesbian looking for federal equality before I die," and Heather Cronk, a co-director of a LGBT rights advocate group GetEqual, later identified the heckler as one of its activists, Ellen Sturtz, 56, who had spent $500 to attend the fundraiser.
Democratic party officials told the New York Times tickets for the event ranged from $500 to $10,000.
Sturz told the Washington Post she was "stunned" at the First Lady's reaction to her protesting.
"She came right down in my face," Sturtz told the Post. "I was taken aback. I said 'I want your husband to sign the executive order.' Her husband could sign this order tonight and protect 22% of the workforce in this country."
After Sturtz was escorted out of the building, Obama continued.
"So let me make the point that I was making before," she said, according to the Times. "We cannot wait for the next presidential election to get fired up and ready to go. We cannot wait. Right now, today, we have an obligation to stand up for those kids."
Obama cited the issues of climate change, gun violence, immigration, student loans and gay rights during her speech on administrative initiatives, and criticized Congress for setbacks on measures that would tighten gun control laws.
