Michelle Shocked Draws Fire for Anti-Gay Remarks

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div class="post-304183 post type-post status-publish hentry category-music tag-folk-music tag-homosexuality tag-shocked-michelle entry " id="entry-304183" style="background-color: white; border-top-style: none; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; padding: 15px 10px 0px;"><header class="postHeader"><h1 class="entry-title" style="color: black; font-size: 2.4em; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.083em; margin: 6px 0px 4px;"><br /></h1><address class="byline author vcard" style="color: grey; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1em; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 2px; margin-top: 2px;">By <a class="url fn" href="http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/author/james-c-mckinley-jr/" style="color: #666699; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase;" title="See all posts by JAMES C. MCKINLEY JR.">JAMES C. MCKINLEY JR.</a></address></header><div class="entry-content" style="margin-top: 15px;"><div class="w190 right" style="clear: right; float: right; margin: 5px 0px 1em 12px; overflow: hidden; width: 190px;"><img alt="Michelle Shocked performing in Madison, Wisc., in 2011." height="251" id="100000002126374" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/03/19/arts/19artsbeat-shocked/19artsbeat-shocked-articleInline.jpg" width="190" /><span class="credit" style="color: #909090; display: block; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1em; line-height: 1.223em; margin: 2px 0px; text-align: right;">Andy Manis/Associated Press</span><span class="caption" style="color: #666666; display: block; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 1.2727em; margin: 3px 2px;">Michelle Shocked performing in Madison, Wisc., in 2011.</span></div><div style="font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1em;">Michelle Shocked, the punk folk-singer, liberal activist and born-again Christian, has<a href="http://sfist.com/2013/03/18/michelle_shocked_launches_into_anti.php" style="color: #666699;">drawn fire</a> for an <a href="http://meowonline.org/michelle-shocked-god-hates-fags/" style="color: #666699;">anti-gay tirade</a> in San Francisco over the weekend, during which she said God hates homosexuals.</div><div style="font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1em;">One nightclub in Evanston, Ill., on Monday canceled a scheduled appearance in May after her remarks, at Yoshi’s jazz club in San Francisco on Sunday night. The Evanston club, Space, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/evanstonspace/posts/10151295791672245" style="color: #666699;">said on its Facebook page</a> that “it’s clear that this is no longer a show we’re willing to put our name on.” At least four other shows have also been canceled, including a March 29 show at the<a href="http://www.hopmonk.com/novato/music-and-events/events-detail/?event_id=276012" style="color: #666699;"> Hopmonk Tavern</a> in Novato, Calif., The Associated Press reported on Tuesday.</div><div style="font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1em;">Michelle Shocked cited Old Testament verses condemning homosexuality and told the audience she hoped the courts would uphold Proposition 8, which bans gay marriage, according to <a href="http://music.yahoo.com/blogs/stop-the-presses/folk-legend-incites-mass-walkout-anti-gay-speech-195312874.html" style="color: #666699;">Yahoo Music</a>. “I live in fear that the world will be destroyed if gays are allowed to marry,” she said. Then she also told the audience to go on Twitter and report that she had said God hates homosexuals, though it is unclear whether <a href="https://twitter.com/ultramundane/status/313543467039080448" style="color: #666699;">that remark was sardonic</a>.<span id="more-304183"></span></div><div style="font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1em;">Much of the audience walked out after her remarks. The club’s manager tried to end the show, but she continued playing until staff members pulled the plug and turned off the stage lights.</div><div style="font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1em;">Gay rights has been a touchy subject for Michelle Shocked over the years. In 1990, she <a href="http://www.dallasvoice.com/michelle-shocked-said-what-1990-outlines-interview-surfaces-10434.html" style="color: #666699;">told an interviewer at The Dallas Voice</a> that she had once had a relationship with a woman but did not want to be defined as a lesbian.</div><div style="font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1em;">In recent years, she underwent a religious conversion and started attending a Pentecostal church, and her statements about homosexuality became more tortured. She <a href="http://www.edgedallas.com/index.php?ch=entertainment&sc=music&sc3=&id=73235&pf=1" style="color: #666699;">told The Dallas Voice in 2008</a> that she resented attempts by journalists to pin down her sexual orientation.</div><div style="font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1em;">“There are some inconvenient truths that I’m now a born-again, sanctified, saved-in-the-blood Christian. So much of what’s said and done in the name of that Christianity is appalling,” the singer told the weekly paper. “According to my Bible, which I didn’t write, homosexuality is immoral. But homosexuality is no more less a sin than fornication. And I’m a fornicator with a capital F.”</div><div style="font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1em;">Then in 2011, she became incensed when a member of the audience asked her position on gay rights at the Christian-oriented Wild Goose Festival in North Carolina, <a href="http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/sexandgender/4888/wild_goose_festival%E2%80%99s_%28mostly%29_welcoming_spirit_for_lgbt_christians_/" style="color: #666699;">Religion Dispatches magazine reported</a>.</div><div style="font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.5em;">“Who drafted me as a gay icon?” she said. “You are looking at the world’s greatest homophobe. Ask God what he thinks.”</div><div><br /></div></div></div><div class="entry-meta" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 10px 0px 0px;"><div class="shareTools shareToolsThemeClassic shareToolsThemeClassicHorizontal articleShareToolsBottom shareToolsInstance" data-description="Some venues have canceled upcoming shows after the folk singer's remarks about homosexuality at a performance in San Francisco." data-shares="facebook|,twitter|,google|,save,email,showall|Share,print" data-title="Michelle Shocked Draws Fire for Anti-Gay Remarks" data-url="http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/19/michelle-shocked-draws-fire-for-anti-gay-remarks/" style="margin: 23px 0px 23px 10px;"><div class="shareToolsBox"><ul class="shareToolsList" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; overflow: auto; padding-left: 0px;"><li class="shareToolsItem shareToolsItemFacebook noLabel firstItem" data-share="facebook" style="background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0.45em; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: none; float: left; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; line-height: 14px; padding: 0px 8px 0px 0px; text-align: left; text-transform: uppercase;"></li></ul></div></div></div></div>

Michelle Shocked Michelle Shocked Draws Fire for Anti-Gay Remarks

By JAMES C. MCKINLEY JR.Andy Manis/Associated PressMichelle Shocked performing in Madison, Wisc., in 2011.Michelle Shocked, the punk folk-singer, liberal activist and born-again Christian, hasdrawn fire for an anti-gay tirade in San Francisco over th…

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Michelle Shocked enrages fans with onstage anti-gay rant

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19px;">Former lefty favourite loses gig bookings after saying same-sex marriage will be 'downfall of civilisation'</span><br /><img alt="Michelle Shocked in 2005" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/3/19/1363691341607/Michelle-Shocked-in-2005-010.jpg" /><br /><br /><div id="main-content-picture" itemprop="image" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" style="background-color: white; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px;"><div class="caption" itemprop="caption" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #666666; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Anti-gay rant … Michelle Shocked outrages fans in San Francisco. Photograph: Startraks Photo/Rex Features</div></div><div id="article-body-blocks" style="background-color: white; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;">Singer-songwriter Michelle Shocked has shocked fans after launching an anti-gay rant onstage in <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/san-francisco" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="More from guardian.co.uk on San Francisco">San Francisco</a> on Sunday night. The singer – who became a favourite of leftwing music fans with early albums such as The <a class="gia-State" data-state="Texas" href="" style="background-color: #eeeeee; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;">Texas</a> Campfire Tapes and Short Sharp Shocked, but who is now a born-again Christian – began telling the crowd her views of Proposition 8, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/california" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="More from guardian.co.uk on California">California</a>'s legal definition of marriage being a union between a woman and a man.</div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;">"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.'"</div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;">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.</div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;">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 <a class="gia-State" data-state="Texas" href="" style="background-color: #eeeeee; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;">Texas</a>, 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.</div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;">Audience members at Sunday's show were stunned by her remarks. "She said <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/gay-marriage" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Gay marriage">gay marriage</a> would cause the end of the world," <a href="https://twitter.com/anile02/statuses/313530127772430336" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="">tweeted @anile02</a>. "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".</div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;">Several venues – in <a class="gia-State" data-state="Illinois" href="" style="background-color: #eeeeee; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;">Illinois</a>, <a class="gia-State" data-state="California" href="" style="background-color: #eeeeee; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;">California</a>, <a class="gia-State" data-state="Oregon" href="" style="background-color: #eeeeee; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;">Oregon</a> and <a class="gia-State" data-state="Colorado" href="" style="background-color: #eeeeee; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;">Colorado</a> – have now cancelled forthcoming shows.</div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;">Shocked has not directly responded to these developments, <a href="https://twitter.com/MShocked/status/313492181891563521" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="">except to tweet</a>: "Truth is leading to painful confrontation."</div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 13px; padding: 0px;">In a 2008 interview with <a href="http://www.edgedallas.com/index.php?ch=entertainment&sc=music&sc3=&id=73235&pf=1" style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="">the Dallas Voice</a>, Shocked strongly denied rumours that she is a lesbian. "[But] what if we called you an 'honorary lesbian'?" asked the interviewer. "I would be honoured," she replied. Describing herself as a "devout practising Christian", she said she was still coming to terms with "bigotry" in the church. "According to my Bible, which I didn't write, homosexuality is immoral," she explained. "But homosexuality is no more less a sin than fornication. And I'm a fornicator with a capital F."</div></div></div>

Michelle Shocked Michelle Shocked enrages fans with onstage anti-gay rant

Former lefty favourite loses gig bookings after saying same-sex marriage will be 'downfall of civilisation'Anti-gay rant … Michelle Shocked outrages fans in San Francisco. Photograph: Startraks Photo/Rex FeaturesSinger-songwriter Michelle Shocked has…

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