Skip to footer

Michelle Shocked concerts canceled. What did she say?

Michelle Shocked ticked off a San Francisco audience with an anti-gay rant. After the anti-gay slurs, several venues canceled their scheduled Michelle Shocked concerts.

  • By Staff Associated Press

| San Francisco

Alternative folk and rock singer Michelle Shocked has had several shows canceled after making an anti-gay slur at a San Francisco concert.

Yoshi's San Francisco Director of Marketing Lisa Bautista told The Associated Press that Shocked had just begun her second set Sunday night when she made comments that included the slur.

The venue muted her microphone, dimmed the lights and announced the show was over. Bautista said Tuesday she was told people in the audience asked Shocked to stop and walked out.

According to a report in the Bay Area Reporter, the tirade began shortly after intermission.

Shocked "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."

Shocked was scheduled to perform at the Hopmonk Tavern in Novato, but the Marin Independent Journal reports the March 29 show was canceled.

At least four other shows also have been canceled, including one in Boulder, Colorado, in May for the radio show eTown.

Requests for comment e-mailed to Shocked and her manager were not immediately returned.

Michelle Shocked, in case you're wondering, is a stage name. The artist's real name is Karen Michelle Johnston.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Michelle Shocked concerts canceled. What did she say?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Latest-News-Wires/2013/0320/Michelle-Shocked-concerts-canceled.-What-did-she-say
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe