Susan Booth
Staff Writer
I would like to take this moment to say that if you don’t support gay men and women and them having the rights and privileges that the rest of us tend to take for granted, then as a person who works in show business, you shouldn’t even consider the idea of coming to San Francisco and performing, only to bash the gay community in a city that thrives on supporting them! This beautiful city is covered in rainbow flags all over the Castro, and they host the gay pride parade every year without fail. This behavior is not only insulting, but it’s damaging to your career.
Folk singer Michelle Shocked went on a crazy homophobic rant while playing a show at a jazz club in San Francisco, as a result, many venues have taken it upon themselves to cancel upcoming performances for the singer. This does not surprise me, and I will freely admit that I am happy that people are wising up! Evanston SPACE, which is located north of Chicago, announced on Monday afternoon that Michelle Shocked’s May 5th show has been cancelled due to her remarks and that refunds would be issued to ticketholders. Evanston SPACE said on their Facebook page ” After speaking with the promoter of that show abut the nature of the remarks, it’s clear that this is no longer a show we’re willing to put our name on.” This was stated on their Facebook page and received well over 600 likes in support as of this afternoon.
It was at Yoshi’s on Sunday night, were Michelle Shocked, a born again Christian who was popular back in the 80’s & 90’s, and was said to be bi-sexual. According the The Windy City Times, she said that she “lives in fear that the world will be destroyed if gays are allowed to marry.” She followed that up by adding that the VERY stunned audience could “go on Twitter and say that Michelle Shocked said God hates fags.” This is according to several reports that have been made.
Many other venues are taking a similar action in regards to the singer’s hurtful words. Shows have been cancelled in Boulder, Colorado and Portland, Oregon. As well as Santa Cruz, CA. Which is good for me, because the last thing I want is this spiteful woman coming to a beautiful city I once lived in and spreading her hate around. Now, A change.org petition is floating around the Internet asking other equal minded music venues to cancel Shocked’s shows. This petition has well over 2,000 supports as of today. Sadly, her website is still listing a bunch of shows in the coming months that haven’t been cancelled just yet. I firmly believe that most of those shows, if not all of them will be cancelled by weeks end. John Becker, who created the petition, has said, “Freedom of speech and artistic expression are critically important, but this isn’t free speech. This is hate speech.” This quote can be found as the introduction on the petition.
Michelle, I hope you weren’t too fond of your career, because, by the look of things, you may not have much of one left after this. I hope your need to be a close-minded bigot was worth it.
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