Love blooms at Occupy D.C.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- Two Occupy D.C. protesters have gotten engaged and more than a dozen other couples at the city's two encampments have emerged, participants said.

"You can't spell 'revolution' without 'love,' " Michael Patterson, a 21-year-old protester who had a brief romantic relationship with another Occupier last fall, told The Washington Post.

Medics at both encampments -- McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza -- routinely hand out condoms and pregnancy tests as couples form over shared ideas and tight living quarters, the newspaper reported Saturday. Some protesters joke Occubabies will spring up, come June.

"It's a bunch of people in their 20s, gathered in a public space with the express purpose of breaking the law. What do you expect to happen?" asked Rob Wohl, 23, a D.C. resident.

Mike Sheffer and Leigh Tatum, who met on a political discussion site on Facebook last year, were engaged during the holidays after sharing a tiny tent at Freedom Plaza for six weeks.

Tatum told Sheffer she'd sleep on the proposal, and in the morning agreed.

"I thought . . . full speed ahead!" she said.

"It was really like a meeting of minds and hearts and souls," Sheffer said. "It's a great way to meet someone."