Immigration and LGBT activists attacked at Romney/Ryan event

When protesters from immigration and LGBT rights groups spoke up at a rally for the Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan presidential campaign Friday, video showed them quickly getting shouted down and shoved away from the event by Romney supporters.

The demonstration, organized by the DRM Capitol Group, Presente.org and the Get Equal campaign, attacked Romney's opposition to both the DREAM Act, which would give undocumented immigrants a way to earn permanent citizenship through either good academic performance or joining the U.S. military, and same sex marriage.

"Romney claims that this is a country of immigrants but he wants us to self-deport and he would veto the DREAM Act," the DRM Capitol Group said in a release. "Those fighting for a more equal America are facing obstruction from a similar cast of characters, led by Mitt Romney. It's clear that the same people who are perpetrating the war on LGBT Americans are also perpetrating the war on immigrants."

The DRM group said on its website that its government relations director, Erika Andiola, and an unidentified priest with Get Equal were "roughed up" during the event.

In the short video, protesters chanting at Romney and Ryan from the crowd are first confronted by a white male in a red shirt before another man, wearing a cowboy hat, pushes into them, as the pro-Romney audience starts chanting "USA! USA!" to drown them out.

Video of the protest, posted on YouTube Friday by DRM Capital Group, can be seen below.

"Protestor in Sombrero and Lucha Libra Mask" image by Flickr user xomiele, Creative Commons license.