Audio emerged Wednesday of folk singer Michelle Shocked’s performance at a San Francisco club on Sunday night, in which her anti-gay remarks have led to a firestorm of criticism among the LGBT community and its allies, and led to an abrupt end to her U.S. tour.
During a brief exchange with audience members minutes into her second set at Yoshi’s San Francisco, Shocked said, “If someone would be so gracious as to please tweet out, ‘Michelle Shocked just said from stage, God hates faggots.’ Would you do it now?”
Her remarks, which included her opposition to same-sex marriage, led to most of the audience walking out of the venue.
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“So it’s not too late. You can jump into this Jesus gang anytime you want. But, um, I was in a prayer meeting yesterday, and you’ve gotta appreciate how scared, how scared folks on that side of the equation are.
“I mean, from their vantage point — and I really shouldn’t say ‘their,’ because it’s mine, too — we are nearly at the end of time. And from our vantage point, we’re gonna be, uhhh, I think maybe Chinese water torture is gonna be the means, the method — once Prop 8 gets, uh, instated, and once, um, preachers are held at gunpoint and forced to marry the homosexuals, I’m pretty sure that that will be the signal for Jesus to come on back.
[…]
“You said you wanted reality.
“If someone would be so gracious as to please tweet out, ‘Michelle Shocked just said from stage, God hates faggots.’ Would you do it now?”
[Emphasis added.]
In a statement issued late Tuesday, Shocked claimed her remarks were “misinterpreted.”
“To those fans who are disappointed by what they’ve heard or think I said, I’m very sorry: I don’t always express myself as clearly as I should,” she said.
The audio is here, the audience exchange begins at about the 4:35 mark, and continues until the Yoshi’s management intervenes at about the 17:15 mark:
Fall out since Shocked’s performance was swift. In the 48 hours that followed, ten of the eleven venues remaining on Shocked’s U.S. tour cancelled her performance, citing the San Francisco incident. The remaining venue said Shocked herself cancelled that performance.
