Folk musician Michelle Shocked goes on anti-gay rant onstage

[Savoring Samsara]

(I haven't seen a thread about this here yet - if someone has beaten me to it, please merge.)

Michelle Shocked, an alt-folk singer-songwriter with a large LGBT fanbase, seems to have had some sort of breakdown at a concert a few nights ago. She went on an epic homophobic rant from the stage - in San Francisco of all places:

ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=68602

[T]hings started to fall apart for the signer during her second set, which she said was "all about reality." She immediately began a rant that left the audience stunned. She said she was tired of Christians hiding behind the cross.

"When they stop Prop 8 and force priests at gunpoint to marry gays, it will be the downfall of civilization and Jesus will come back," she said.

Loud gasps were heard from the audience. Many fans walked out.

"I believe the Bible is the word of God," Shocked continued. More audience gasps were heard. More fans exited and some shouted pro-gay sentiments including "Gays deserve to marry," "That is a rotten and horrible thing to say," "Jesus loves people," and "Don't bash people for who they are."

One woman shouted: "Don't say that shit in San Francisco."

Shocked replied, "Where do I go to say it?"

In response to audience reaction, Shocked offered a Spanish prayer that "God loves you. God loves us. God loves us all everywhere." Later, in English, she said: "God bless us everyone."

Many fans questioned the singer out loud: "What are you saying?"

With a broad smile, Shocked said. "You are going to leave here and tell people 'Michelle Shocked said God hates faggots.'"

This link has more details from a fan who was live tweeting the show at Michelle's request. From what he says, it sounds like her speech was premeditated and she had a feeling she would get this reaction for "speaking truth":

music.yahoo.com/blogs/stop-the-presses/folk-legend-incites-mass-walkout-anti-gay-speech-195312874.html

Basically every single one of her upcoming concerts has now been canceled by the venue. I find it incredibly tragic that a poisonous religion like fundamentalism can make someone believe that the way to get closer to God is to spew this kind of hate speech and destroy their career in the process.

[snarkyjan]

(I haven't seen a thread about this here yet - if someone has beaten me to it, please merge.)

Michelle Shocked, an alt-folk singer-songwriter with a large LGBT fanbase, seems to have had some sort of breakdown at a concert a few nights ago. She went on an epic homophobic rant from the stage - in San Francisco of all places:

ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=68602

This link has more details from a fan who was live tweeting the show at Michelle's request. From what he says, it sounds like her speech was premeditated and she had a feeling she would get this reaction for "speaking truth":

music.yahoo.com/blogs/stop-the-presses/folk-legend-incites-mass-walkout-anti-gay-speech-195312874.html

Basically every single one of her upcoming concerts has now been canceled by the venue. I find it incredibly tragic that a poisonous religion like fundamentalism can make someone believe that the way to get closer to God is to spew this kind of hate speech and destroy their career in the process.

The only language people like this understand is a good, hard hit to their wallets.

[whatsthesitch]

"When they stop Prop 8 and force priests at gunpoint to marry gays, it will be the downfall of civilization and Jesus will come back," she said.

Oh will He now? But surely that's what you want, seeing as you're so blameless before God? Hateful woman! :angry-jumpinganger:

[valsa]

Bizarre. My first thought is either drugs or a serious mental breakdown.

[Savoring Samsara]

Bizarre. My first thought is either drugs or a serious mental breakdown.

Yeah. A few commenters on those articles claimed she's had mental health issues in the past, so it could be related to that somehow.

[meda]

That is a bizarre outburst, but she has been a born again Christian since the late 90's. she has said in previous interviews that she views homosexuality as a sin, but no more a sin than anything else. I am wondering if she took a sudden harder turn into the right wing of her church because of some personal crisis or illness.

[JenniferJuniper]

Didn't she used to be a lesbian?

Maybe her church made her pray away the gay so she's hyper-sensitive over the fact that people don't understand she completely cured now. :roll:

[meda]

She apparently was married to a man for a decade, and has always described herself as sexually ambiguous. She has also been in relationships with women. Apparently, this is not her first outburst. The link below includes a comment from her about how she is "the worlds biggest homophobe" I used to really enjoy her music before she started saying all this shit.

http://www.religiondispatches.org/archi ... e_festival’s_(mostly)_welcoming_spirit_for_lgbt_christians_/

[lagenialester]

Yeah. A few commenters on those articles claimed she's had mental health issues in the past, so it could be related to that somehow.

That was my first thought too. It just seems sort of out of left field otherwise.

[nokidsmom]

Bizarre. My first thought is either drugs or a serious mental breakdown.

My thoughts as well. When Mr. Nokidsmom mentioned it this morning, I remembered she had some problems in the past. Methinks there is more to this than just her religious views, but if there are other issues going, the crazy fundamentalism can't help, meaning the "pray it away" stuff.

[Trudestar]

I've always loved Michelle Shocked, and was always under the impression she was gay.

I saw her a few years ago in Queensland, and she was kinda weird, ranting a bit on stage. I can't remember what it was about, but she wasn't a happy camper, that's for sure. I thought then that she had some mental health issues.

[kittengrrl]

When I was a little girl my next door neighbors were close relatives of hers. My friend's mom was her sister. They were hard core Apostolic (like prayed over the younger daughter with olive oil when she broke her wrist for a hour before taking her to the emergency room). This was in the 80's. I don't know if she was involved with the same church but they were heavily indoctrinated and I was convinced I was going to hell because I didn't wear long skirts!

[FloraDoraDolly]

Sad... What we probably have here is a self-loathing closeted lesbian who has been beaten down by religious extremists to the point where she is now trying to beat down others. I won't be surprised if she ends up being a poster child for one of those ex-gay organizations. But I also won't be surprised if she eventually becomes an ex-ex-gay.

[Sumeri]

I just loved her way back in the day. In fact, I was reading about her a few weeks ago in one of those "what ever happened to...?" moments. I saw that she's born again, and she's never made a secret of her mental troubles. This is just awful. Perfect storm of fundamentalism+mental strife=nothing good. I hope she gets help. She just lost a HUGE portion of her fanbase.

[Peas n carrots]

IMO this is what you get when you combine mental illness with fundamentalism.

Of course xGayGreg posted his own rant in support of Shocked. I won't post it as it is nothing you've heard before, just more of the same homophobe crap.

[Shoobydoo]

I feel badly for all the fans at that concern. That must have been the shock of their lives.

[Black Aliss]

IMO this is what you get when you combine mental illness with fundamentalism.

Redundancy?

[Sobeknofret]

This is truly bizarre. I really loved Michelle Shocked; Short, Sharp, Shocked is one of my favorite albums. What gets me is she pulled this shit in San Francisco of all places. Talk about instantly tanking your career. I hope she gets some treatment for her illness, if that is in fact the case here, and she can begin to heal herself, although her career as a musician is pretty much dead.

[rward]

Am I the only one who thinks this might be a career move, like that blonde woman from SNL?

This is not the first time Shocked has said nasty things about gays. She's been fundamentalist for a long time. Her albums no longer sell except to a hardcore group of fans that isn't large enough to support her, and despite being fundamentalist for a long time, she's too "weird" to be picked up by the Christian modern music crowd.

I think she decided to try a hail mary career move, seeking to turn herself into a martyr for the Religious Right in the hopes it would lead to big recording contracts, invitations to play at big events, etc. What she said and where she said it is just too "perfect" to be a random mental breakdown, imo.

[FloraDoraDolly]

Am I the only one who thinks this might be a career move, like that blonde woman from SNL?

You mean Victoria Jackson? She's been right wing and nuts for a long time. I read that even back in the day on SNL, she didn't get along with her two female castmates, partly because of her views.

This is not the first time Shocked has said nasty things about gays. She's been fundamentalist for a long time. Her albums no longer sell except to a hardcore group of fans that isn't large enough to support her, and despite being fundamentalist for a long time, she's too "weird" to be picked up by the Christian modern music crowd.

I think she decided to try a hail mary career move, seeking to turn herself into a martyr for the Religious Right in the hopes it would lead to big recording contracts, invitations to play at big events, etc. What she said and where she said it is just too "perfect" to be a random mental breakdown, imo.

True, she could have made those same remarks at CPAC or some fundie church. But she did it in SF, of all places.

[PennySycamore]

Bizarre. My first thought is either drugs or a serious mental breakdown.

Severe mental breakdown, I'd guess. It's happened before, IIRC, and on stage at that.

I'd read about this on DailyKos and on Joe.My.God. Michelle was involved in Occupy LA and had been considered fairly progressive by some of her former fan base until these anti-gay tirades. I would not be at all surprised that her latent lesbianism is one reason her marriage fell apart. I know that the Metropolitan Community Church in West Hollywood has a group called Dos Equis for the ex-ex-gays. She needs to know that is it possible to be gay and Christian. She also needs to get away from that West Angeles COGIC church ASAP. As it is, FloraDoraDolly is right: the only places she'd be welcomed are CPAC and maybe some fundie churches

[Savoring Samsara]

and, right on time, here's the predictable non-apology apology and claims of having been misunderstood. (News site, not breaking link.)

http://www.seattlepi.com/entertainment/ ... 371253.php