Michelle Shocked Anti-Gay Rant: Folk Singer Slurs Same-Sex Marriage, Says Will Bring End of The World, Was She Being Ironic or Homophobic?

Michelle Shocked is a renowned alternative folk artist, best known for her work in the 1990s. Well, after a concert in San Francisco this weekend, she is going to be remembered for slurring the LGBT movement in a confusing and odd manner. During her show, Shocked (real name Karen Michelle Johnston) mentioned she had an "invisible man" with her on stage. Okay, fine. Then a crowd member asked for a gospel song, to which Shocked responded, "I love me some Jesus." Sure, that's fine, too, Michelle. But then it got pretty weird and abruptly prejudice.

"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 to an astonished crowd. Many concertgoers walked out on the singer, to which she simply said, "I believe the Bible is the word of God."

Many people who stayed started saying things back to the anti-gay singer, such as:

"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."

One woman even shouted: "Don't say that shit in San Francisco."

So Shocked replied, "Where do I go to say it?"

Maybe realizing what she started, Shocked offered a Spanish prayer, which, translated into English, went: "God loves you. God loves us. God loves us all everywhere." Then she added in English: "God bless us everyone."

Maybe the biggest question of the concert came from countless audience members: "What are you saying?"

Unfortunately, Shocked had an even more prejudice response to this and said, "You are going to leave here and tell people 'Michelle Shocked said God hates faggots.'"

At this point a manager of the venue, Yoshi, announced that the show was over and cut the singer's microphone. A few fans stuck around to listen to an unplugged last few songs.

But what was she saying? Was it homophobic or did she try to make a really strange attempt at sarcasm?

Shocked's harmonica player, Colin Epstein, attempted to explain what he heard:

"People misinterpreted her ironic comment. She didn't mean it. It was her comment on hypocrisy."

Not many other people feel that that was her message, though. A number of venues have already cancelled Michelle Shocked's appearances during her tour (that is becoming more and more not a tour).