90's Alt. Folk Rocker, Michelle Shocked Stuns San Francisco Club With Homophobic Rant

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF/LIVE 105) - Singer-songwriter Michelle Shocked lived up to her stage name over the weekend when she stunned a San Francisco audience by going on a homophobic rant during a concert that included the statement, "God hates fags."

The show-stopping moment happened during Shocked's second set of the night at SF club Yoshi's this past Sunday night (March 17), and was live-tweeted by Matt Penfield.

"Music was good. Hate speech was excruciating. 2nd set became a hostage situation–luckily we could all leave," Penfield tweeted about the incident, adding that it was "super anti-gay and hateful."

Shocked, who has identified herself as a born-again Christian in recent years (she joined the Pentecostal West Angeles Church of God in Christ in 2008), originally came to prominence in the late '80s with the release of The Texas Campfire Tapes, a bootleg recording that was eventually reissued on Mercury Records.

This is not the first time Shocked has lashed out publicly at homosexuality. According to Religion Dispatches Magazine, when she was asked about her "position on homosexuality" during a 2008 Christian music-focused Wild Goose Festival, a visibly upset Shocked railed, "Who drafted me as a gay icon? You are looking at the world's greatest homophobe. Ask God what He thinks."

"There is always someone who wants to catch me," she added to a festival staffer after shutting off her microphone.

The self-described "radical skateboard punk-rock anarchist" was something of a lesbian icon during her '90s heyday, something she now disavows completely. The alleged about-face comes as a complete surprise to Shocked's long-time fans.

"Ask any lesbian who was a fan of hers in the '80s and 90s and they will tell you that they have NO doubt she is a lesbian," commented one such reader on Queerty.com. "Just another sick sad, twisted closet case whose sanity is ruined by buying in to the bigoted religion she is a member of. Pathetic."

According to her Twitter feed, Shocked was adamant that her message get out.

After the onstage rant which allegedly cleared the club, Shocked has only posted one tweet.

The fallout from the shocking tirade has been immediate, with the news site Gambit linking to two different venues in Bolder, Co, and Novato, CA, that have canceled previously scheduled Michelle Shocked shows in light of the incident.

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