Eight Arrested in Vegas ENDA Protest

Lt. Dan Choi, GetEqual cofounder Robin McGehee, and six others have been arrested after stopping traffic on Las Vegas Boulevard to bring attention to congressional inaction to advance the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

The eight protesters stopped traffic on the strip for at least 10 minutes before police officers on bicycles arrived at the scene of the protest. The protesters were carrying a sign that spanned half the length of the street, reading: "Reid: No One Can Do More? GetEqual.org."

Several other protesters formed a picket line and carried signs reading, "I can still be fired for who I am," and posted a sign on the pedestrian bridge between between MGM and New York, New York casinos thatread, "REID: PASS ENDA NOW! GetEqual.org."

GetEqual asked its followers last week who should be taken to task for not moving the bill known as ENDA forward. "Our so-called friends in Congress who promised passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act this year have already conceded defeat," the organization says on its website. "It may not be nice and it certainly won't get us invited to any fancy Washington cocktail parties, but we aren't going down without a fight! Which Democratic leader do you think GetEqual should hold accountable?"

The four Congress members in question were Sen. Harry Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Barney Frank, and Rep. George Miller -- all of whom had expressed their support for enacting ENDA in the past.