Gay Activists Arrested at Sit-In at Boehner's Office

Want a floor vote on Employment Non-Discrimination Act

Eight activists with GetEqual were arrested Thursday outside House Speaker John Boehner's office as part of a protest demanding the speaker hold a floor vote on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would ban anti-LGBT job discrimination.

"I'm here today because in Texas this past legislative session we fought long and hard to get the Fair Employment Act passed, which is the Texas version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Even though 76 percent of registered Texas voters supported it … we still couldn't get it out of committee," Tiffani Bishop, the first of the eight arrested, said prior to the action in the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill.

"This is very personal for me," Bishop said of difficulties she has faced and is facing in finding employment. "Eight of us drove 30 hours in a van to ask Speaker Boehner to represent the people."