If you watched MTV with regularity at all in the late 80s/early 90s, there’s a chance you’ll recall Michelle Shocked, the alt-folk singer who gained a slice of fame back then when her songs “Come a Long Way” and “On the Greener Side” got tons of airplay on the network. (“On The Greener Side” was also nominated for a VMA, though it lost to Madonna’s “Vogue.”)
Well, she’s now a born-again Christian, for some reason, despite still being a pretty firm leftist on some issues (she was arrested for taking part in the Occupy movement). She does not, however, approve of the gays, as evidenced by her remarks on stage at a show at Yoshi’s in San Francisco Monday night.
“I live in fear,” she said, “that the world will be destroyed if gays are allowed to marry.”
Yoshi’s plugged the show calling Shocked “The most sophisticated hillbilly you ever met,” and her earlier reputation was one of a punk folkie who skateboarded, fought for progressive causes, and dug rock and roll. Indeed her politics still veer toward the left, as she was arrested during an Occupy L.A. protest, and she still calls herself “a radical skateboard punk-rock anarchist.” (Her first big album, Short Sharp Shocked, featured a cover photo of a San Francisco riot cop with a choke-hold around her neck during an 1980s protest.) But as a member of the Pentacostal West Angeles Church of God in Christ, she seems to have become a fundamentalist Christian bigot too. Fans have earlier revolted when Shocked revealed she was anti-abortion as well.
A number of people tweeted about last night’s show (see below), and apparently many audience members walked out after her rant began. Yoshi’s subsequently shut down the show after the audience cleared out.
She also reportedly said, “You can go on Twitter and say ‘Michelle Shocked says God hates fags.'”
In other, happier “God hates fags” news, the house across the street from the Westboro Baptist Church was painted in rainbow colors and more members of the flock are leaving. So there’s that!
(Pic via Michelle Shock’s website)
