A reporter with ties to a newspaper based in Macon, who describes herself as a Roman Catholic priestess, was swept away by security from a press area at Los Angeles International Airport near Air Force One on Thursday.

The woman, Brenda Lee, says she wanted to hand deliver a letter to President Obama urging him “to take a stand for traditional marriage.” Lee writes for the Georgia Informer, a monthly publication in Macon, and says she has White House credentials.

She said she asked a Secret Service agent to give the president her letter, but he refused and referred her to a White House staffer. Lee said she refused to give the staffer the letter.

“I said, ‘I’ll take my chances if (the president) comes by here,'” said Lee, who identified herself as a Roman Catholic priestess who lives in Anaheim, Calif. “He became annoyed that I wouldn’t give him the letter.”

Lee, who was wearing what she described as a cassock, said she protested when she was asked to leave.

“I said, ‘Why are you bothering me?’ They escorted me outside the gate,” she said.

She said security officers allowed her to return when she promised she would not yell or wave, but then other officers arrived and told her to leave.

“I said, ‘I’m not leaving,'” she said. “They tried to drag me out.”

Two officers then picked her up and carried her out. An Associated Press photographer photographed the incident.