An immigration activist and member of the LGBTQ community is back home in Los Angeles after her trip to the White House last week where she was escorted off the property for heckling President Barack Obama.
Transgender woman and undocumented immigrant Jennicet Gutierrez told NBC4 on Tuesday that she's passionate about fighting for the rights of transgender individuals housed in federal detention centers — many of whom she claims are abused while living in the facilities because of their gender identities.
During Obama's speech on LGBTQ issues at the White House event June 24, Gutierrez heckled the him, to which he responded, "Shame on you ... you're in my house."
"The thing I said to the President was, 'Release all LGBTQ detainees in detention centers and if not, at least stop the abuse and the torture these women are facing,'" Gutierrez said.
Obama was discussing the strides made for the LGBTQ community but Gutierrez believes that new advancements for the transgender community are not enough, especially for LGBTQ immigrants.
"The moment (Obama) mentioned progress, he triggered for me all these experiences I've been hearing about from my sisters in the centers," Gutierrez said of her experience at the White House. "To me, it was a moment to bring the issue to the administration and say, 'This has to stop.'"
While Obama gets his fair share of jeering, he was not impressed by Gutierrez's display at the LGBTQ event at the White House she was sponsored to attend, telling the crowd that "as a general rule, I'm just fine with a few hecklers, but not when I'm up in the house ... If you're eating the hors d'oeuvres ... you know what I'm saying?"
His reaction to Gutierrez has received heckling of its own on social media, especially after Gutierrez posted video taken on her cellphone of White House security leading her out of the event. The boos heard as she walked out were from other LGBTQ activists also in attendance.
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"It hurt that my own community turned their back on me," Gutierrez said. "I think they forgot how our movement got started."
Less than one week later, Gutierrez was pleased to learn that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released new guidelines addressing what she was fighting for: improvement of treatment and classification of LGBTQ members in federal detention centers.
"If you're a transgender woman, yes, you can be potentially housed with female inmates," said Andrew Lorenzen-Strait, spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in a news conference via telephone on June 30.
Previously, immigrants were housed in male or female sections at centers based on their gender assigned at birth, leaving a transgender woman in the male housing quarters, for example.
The new procedural changes amend the government database, enabling the collection of sexual and gender identification in addition to biographical information of immigrant detainees.
Lorenzen-Strait added that at the Santa Ana Federal Detention Center, where 25 transgender immigrants are currently housed, a new model was launched in July 2011, which separates all LGBTQ individuals from the general population.
"We have piloted this and we are successfully doing this as we speak at one of our facilities in the Midwest," Lorenzen-Strait said.
While it's a change since Gutierrez heckled the President in an effort to bring attention to this issue, she is only calling it a partial victory, urging officials to release LGBTQ detainees from centers altogether.
She believes the danger is just too strong.
Gutierrez has not received word from the Obama administration or the group that invited her to the event in the first place.
