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Wow. Oh, wow.

Today, as you might have heard, Lt. Dan Choi and Capt. Jim Pietrangelo were arrested after chaining themselves to the White House fence. And, honestly, this act of civil disobedience — on the day the Senate Armed Services Committee held another hearing on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, on the day that the HRC and Kathy Griffin held a protest rally to draw attention to the DADT repeal efforts — was an epic cross-section of gay life in 2010.

The day started with the Senate Armed Services Committee receiving testimony from DADT-discharged Major Mike Almy, among others. The questions and the testimony were riveting and, occasionally, offensive, with Almy responding to Gen. Sheehan’s claim that sexual assaults of men by gay men are to be expected, “There is no place in the military today for inappropriate conduct.”

Kathy Griffin, with her D-List cameras in tow, also attended the hearing, tweeting as she left, “I just stormed out of my 1st senate hearing on ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’ I called Saxby Chambliss ‘cuckoo-pants’ nice n loud. Good exit, yes?”

Kathy then headed over to the HRC-sponsored DADT protest being held in D.C.’s Freedom Plaza. Kathy began speaking at noon.

Meanwhile, Lt. Dan Choi spoke to David Mixner and announced that he and Capt. planned to chain themselves to the White House fence in order to draw attention to the injustice of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Choi knew it was risky but said, “[I understand] the consequences of my actions and am willing to bear the sacrifice.”

True to his word, Choi, in an entirely unplanned move the friends tired to talk him out of, took to the podium at the rally, telling Kathy, “Kathy, you’re great at telling jokes. but Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is not a joke.” Choi then said, “Our fight is not here, it is at the White House . . Kathy, will you go with me?” And Kathy responded, “Of course!” But Choi wasn’t done. He asked Joe Solmonese to march with him to the White House as well. Kathy ended the moment by reading aloud a text sent by Cher herself, “Stand strong you crazy bitch. fight hard, that’s why I love you. Cher.”

But Choi was just getting started. He hopped down and began the march to the White House, pulling much of the crowd originally gathered to support the HRC’s rally along with him, leaving both Joe Solmonese and Kathy Griffin behind.

Once there, Choi read this statement before handcuffing himself to the White House fence:

Hello. My name is Lt. Dan Choi. I am being discharged from the US Army because I am gay and dared to say it out loud.

Today, I am here on a mission with Capt. Jim Pietrangelo, and we are asking you all to join us. We’re calling you to action because we are at a turning point — a moment in time where talk is no longer enough, and action is required.

Equality is not going to happen by itself.

You have been told that the President has a plan. But Congressman Barney Frank confirmed to us this week that the President still is not fully committed to repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell this year.

And if we don’t seize this moment it may not happen for a very long time.

Some may tell you that I am one of the lucky ones. I have been welcomed back by my unit with open arms. And it would be easy for me to stay quiet and hope that change will happen.

But what I was taught at West Point and learned in war is — hope is not a strategy. As officers, James and I both find it a dereliction of our moral duty to remain silent while thousands of our brothers and sister are not allowed to serve openly and honestly.

Capt. Pietrangelo was honorably discharged under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in 2004 and I will be subject to the same shortly. As officers we are here today fighting for those in the ranks, and we need our Commander in Chief to do the same.

Our fight is not here at Freedom Plaza, it is at the White House. We are walking to the White House right now to send the President a message. So…take out your cell phones and your cameras. Document this moment. Join us as together — we make history.

And then the pair chained themselves to the White House fence, to chants of support from those who marched with them and and those who gathered. GetEqual’s Robin McGehee was the first arrested at the site for helping Choi handcuff himself. And then there was a standoff as the Secret Service came, along with an army of police officers who used police tape to section off Choi and Pietrangelo from the crowd. The police then announced that anyone on the sidewalk would be arrested. The crowd quickly thinned, but Choi and Pietrangelo remained chained.

For a few minutes there appeared to be a standoff as the officers apparently tried to figure out exactly what to do. They, of course, arrested Choi and Pietrangelo and took them off in a white van.

Throughout, there were angry tweets claiming that Kathy should bail Choi out, that she was just using gays to get a good TV segment and that she was a coward for not sticking around. (There were even calls for Rachel Maddow to bail him out.) But, no, this wasn’t her fight. She did more than enough in showing up to the planned HRC rally and bringing attention to DADT. The real coward was Joe Solmonese. This is his fight. And when a heroic man makes an enormous effort to end an injustice against gay people, the leader of the nation’s largest civil rights organization does not take some Glamour shots, avoid the masses, and then breezily issue this statement:

Today more than 1000 people showed up at a rally – 500 of which signed up to become more involved in the fight to repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’ Joe Solmonese along with Eric Alva and others felt it was important to stay and engage those at the rally in ways they can continue building the pressure needed for repeal. This does nothing to diminish the actions taken by Lt. Choi and others. This is the nature of social change and everyone has a role to play.

Tonight, Kathy will be on Joy Behar’s show to talk about the day’s events. Griffin, by the way, after learning what Choi had done tweeted, “It was my honor 2 share th podium w Lt Dan Choi today. I understand he’s been arrested in front of the White House. I dig that dude! Balls!”

He sure does. And he did us proud today.

Choi, Pietrangelo, and McGehee are being held at Anacostia station, charged with failure to obey lawful order. A police spokesman says that will be held overnight and appear tomorrow in DC superior court, although McGehee’s court appearance is not entirely clear at this point.

Already, there are rallies planned tonight and calls for Obama to pardon Choi, Pietrangelo, and McGehee.

Below, more video from the day’s events. (You can check out the tweet-by-tweet action of the day here.)

The video of Choi’s arrest.

Protesters chanting their support.

Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on not knowing about the Choi arrest.

CNN’s Rick Sanchez was one of the few MSM anchors to give the arrest any amount of time.

images via, via, via, via, via, Mr_Darling

Photo gallery on the next page.