At Michelle Shocked's show in San Francisco on Sunday night, it was the audience’s turn to be shocked. Now the battle continues as the Internet explodes, and her shows have almost all been cancelled. Shocked finally responded on Tuesday.
During her set Sunday, the 51-year-old folk singer, who rose as an alternative star in the 1980s and 1990s, even more in the UK than in her native U.S., stunned the audience at Bay Area venue Yoshi’s with a rant in support of the anti-gay-marriage bill Proposition 8. She described the destruction she felt would follow gay marriage legalization.
“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," Shocked said, causing much of the audience to simply leave. "You are going to leave here and tell people, 'Michelle Shocked said God hates faggots.' "
She apparently does not know her audience. Or rather, they didn’t know her. Now that they do, former fans and new opponents have started speaking out.
Petitions circulated, demanding that the venues she had booked for the other 12 shows on her tour drop her. All of the locations except the Harmony Bar in Madison, Wisc. have cancelled her shows and are offering refunds on tickets.
The one place that hasn’t cancelled is apparently just waiting for word from an absent authority. Billboard spoke to an employee who said Tuesday night, "I won't know a damn thing until the boss comes back in eight days."
Shocked spoke out on Twitter on Tuesday, engaging with critics and her remaining fans throughout the day, mostly defending her comments, talking about context and irony, and discussing the born-again Christian views she adopted in the mid-1990s that inspired the views that sparked the controversy.
Her Tuesday tweet fest also took a more positive outlook on 21st Century outrage.
“One of the good things about content theft: When you outrage 'em, they're already cheated out of a bonfire to burn your work.” Shocked tweeted.
