Michelle Shocked Anti-Gay Rant

[cronus]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/ma ... i-gay-rant

Michelle Shocked enrages fans with onstage anti-gay rant

Singer-songwriter Michelle Shocked has shocked fans after launching an anti-gay rant onstage in San Francisco on Sunday night. The singer – who became a favourite of leftwing music fans with early albums such as The Texas Campfire Tapes and Short Sharp Shocked, but who is now a born-again Christian – began telling the crowd her views of Proposition 8, California's legal definition of marriage being a union between a woman and a man.

"When they stop Prop 8 and force priests at gunpoint to marry gays, it will be the downfall of civilisation, and Jesus will come back," Shocked told the crowd at Yoshi's in San Francisco, before many of them reportedly walked out. "You are going to leave here and tell people, 'Michelle Shocked said God hates faggots.'"

The club's manager tried to end the show, but Shocked continued playing until venue staff pulled the plug and turned off the stage lights.

Shocked, 51, has been an alternative music icon since the late 80s and early 90s, when her raw sound and radical politics briefly caught the zeitgeist. Although she is from Texas, she was particularly successful in the UK, where three of her LPs reached the top 50. Though Shocked's popularity has waned, she has continued making music, describing herself as an "anarchist skateboard punk" and, for about two decades, a born-again Christian.

Audience members at Sunday's show were stunned by her remarks. "She said gay marriage would cause the end of the world," tweeted @anile02. "She's a total bigot and said so on stage," agreed @lisahubbert. "It was unreal. We had to leave." @TheGuapo said he felt like an "emotional hostage": "[she] went full hate speech".

(continued)

[Animavore]

Never heard of her.

[cronus]

Never heard of her.

A icon for a couple of years...all over now...go back to sleep.

[Animavore]

Not being instantly recognisable makes you a pretty shitty icon

[cronus]

Not being instantly recognisable makes you a pretty shitty icon

She was big back in the day. Here's some background.

http://www.dallasvoice.com/michelle-sho ... 10434.html

[klr]

She's born again? That's the end of her career then. Mind you, the most recent album I have from her is dated 1994.

Still, she did have possibly my favourite song from the 1980's, when she had a quite different take on life:

http://www.myspace.com/video/michelle-s ... /106484889

[Animavore]

Religion poisons everything.

[rachelbean]

What an idiot.

[tattuchu]

Oh. I always assumed she was a lesbian

I love Arkansas Traveler.

Religion poisons everything

[Bella Fortuna]

I was a great fan of hers... this kinda poisons that. She's done some fantastic music, but Christ... what a moron.

[klr]

Oh. I always assumed she was a lesbian

I love Arkansas Traveler.

Religion poisons everything

So did a lot of people apparently.

Maybe it was the "K.D. Lang" effect.

[Audley Strange]

Is that her that did "My Name is Luka?"

[Animavore]

Is that her that did "My Name is Luka?"

No. Suzanne Vega.

I heard of her.

[hadespussercats]

Oh. I always assumed she was a lesbian

I love Arkansas Traveler.

Religion poisons everything

Me too.

What a shame.

[klr]

Is that her that did "My Name is Luka?"

No. Suzanne Vega.

I heard of her.

FWIW, I think Suzanne Vega is a Buddhist.