(Source)
Michelle Shocked, the skateboard-loving alt-folkie who once nabbed a Best Female Video nomination at the 1990 MTV Video Music Awards for her clip "On the Greener Side," just racked up another honor: She is pop culture's most "shocking" bigot yet.
At a recent concert at Yoshi's nightclub in San Francisco, the 51-year-old singer-songwriter launched into an anti-gay attack that included musings such as, "You can go on Twitter and say ‘Michelle Shocked says God hates fags" and -- according to one tweeting audience-goer -- that Shocked "lives in fear that the world will be destroyed if gays are allowed to marry."
Apparently this incident has some precedent, even though Shocked is known as a college radio radical who was arrested as a protestor in 2011's Occupy LA movement. The singer has openly identified herself as a born-again Christian, and she's shied away in recent years from her statements against homophobia in Christianity. She once said, "I am a believer. I am a devout practicing Christian. I don’t like the ring of that because I know so many people who profess the faith, and I look at their social conscious, and I can’t see how they reconcile their faith with their politics,” adding, "Homosexuality is no less a sin than fornication. And I am a fornicator with a capital F." But things have changed. Her statements even surprised a man named Matt Penfield who volunteered to live-tweet her Yoshi's gig; according to Penfield's wife, the entire concert may have been set up to promote her anti-gay message.
Well! I guess this is truly another moment of "progress" for Michelle Shocked, because who knew you could devote yourself to left-wing causes and still wax homophobic like a Westboro Baptist devotee? What's next, is Buffy Sainte-Marie going to announce that Native Americans shouldn't be allowed to vote?
Further examination reveals that Shocked was apparently diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic who didn't receive enough treatment before being released from a month-long stay in treatment. Yikes.
Whatever strange truth is behind Shocked's message -- and it is especially strange considering how many times Shocked was (apparently mis-)identified as a lesbian in the press -- let's never forget the fact that "On the Greener Side" was nominated against "Vogue" at the '90 VMAs. History will show that is Shocked's first attack on gay institutions.
