Comments on: Meander’s says it won’t host Michelle Shocked show because of singer’s homophobic tirade

By: andrea

andrea — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 21:31:30 +0000

If anyone is interested, this link is from nbc news and includes the full audio (down at the end of link) of Michelle from the start of her performance on Sunday. Very intersting…
http://entertainment.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/21/17399491-michelle-shocked-apologizes-says-anti-gay-statements-were-misunderstood?lite

By: ikahana

ikahana — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 03:51:15 +0000

Thank you, AG! This idea that we have to be “tolerant” but continuing to support with our money and time artists who make it known by words or actions that they see the core audience as less than fully equal citizens is ridiculous. And there are many stories of performers from the Christian music (or other entertainment) world who come out as Gay/Lesbian who are then shunned.

Can a performer have a different point of view. Sure. I like a lot of performers who have different views. But to come up in the community, to have your core base in the community, to identify with that community and then to turn on them – makes the music a little difficult to hear, just like finding out that a healthy tofu place has pigeons pooping on the stuff when it sits outside. Might have tasted great before you found that out, but hard to ever eat it again once you know.

By: AG

AG — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 22:06:16 +0000

What many people have missed here, though some alluded to it, is that Michelle Shocked WAS a member of the LGBTQ community. Her (ex)fans are, in very large numbers, members of that community. Her comments in that context are that much more hateful and belligerent. She has been “born again” and decided to go back in the closet, but she doesn’t get to take the rest of us with her, and we have the right, as the (queer) community, to stand up and say NO to funding her fundie nonsense.

The fact that she was a member of the community (and many of us didn’t know that she’d made this massive shift) changes things quite a bit in my mind. Many people were expecting to see a radical feminist queer artist. They feel duped, and I don’t blame them. So for those who are NOT a part of the community to weigh in, you can argue but make sure you argue ALL the facts.

By: Ajax

Ajax — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 22:00:38 +0000

@evergreen – I am from the South and still spend more time there than I’d like. My comment was based on what I still observe in 2013 in the backward neck o’ the woods where I’m from. And yes, I know not every single person there is a fundy homophobe, but unfortunately, the vast majority who I come into contact with are.

By: AnnM

AnnM — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 21:16:28 +0000

She probably is gay, but since that doesn’t jibe with her new born-again-ness, she has to go to the other extreme and say she hates gay people. Just like a Republican Family Values, outspokenly anti-homosexual politician who gets caught trolling for gay sex in an airport bathroom or having an affair with his male intern.

By: T Rex

T Rex — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 19:55:24 +0000

Nice way to start off a “tour” of sorts.

Atta girl!

By: WSLGBT

WSLGBT — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 18:48:26 +0000

HATE SPEECH ≠ FREE SPEECH

By: wscommuter

wscommuter — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 16:20:09 +0000

CJB … Meanders isn’t engaging in censorship. Censorship – limiting or barring the free expression of ideas – is by nature, governmental action. Meanders is a private business, equally entitled to make its own choices about what activities it will – and won’t – allow on its premises as a private, commercial entity.

Like you, I support free speech … even, regretably, when free speech is hate speech. And I’m bummed – I’ve been a huge M. Shocked fan for years, never knowing she leaned this way (most of her music is fairly left-wing). But Meanders isn’t “censoring” anything, anymore than I am “censoring” M. Shocked if I choose to no longer buy her albums. Wrong use of the word.

By: JoB

JoB — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 16:01:44 +0000

cj.. i too will defend the right of otheres to publicly say things i find offensive…
but i draw the line at paying them to do so.

That is the real line Meanders and other venues drew.
They refused to pay to provide a venue for a performer to use language that was offensive to them.

loved what moji posted

“A wise person once tweeted, “The “freedom” part in “freedom of speech” is about one’s freedom to say things, not freedom from the consequences afterwards. It’s clear that she was free to say what she said. And now, we’re free to respond according to our values, whatever those might be.”

By: stephanie

stephanie — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 15:07:06 +0000

Just because we do have the right to ‘free speech’ doesn’t make it right thing to do and have the support from people ‘because we can’. I personally don’t like free speech when it contains hate like this. Free speech can lead to hurting or killing people. Another constitutional right I think needs to be updated.

By: toodles

toodles — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 14:22:36 +0000

she’s just another version of palin that’s all..

By: evergreen

evergreen — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 13:26:33 +0000

Not all of the South or SE, Ajax. Liberalism is not a Seattle prerogative.

And disagree with a few above, this was hate speech. Her fans have the right to abandon her in droves and speak with their dollars.

By: evergreen

evergreen — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 13:23:49 +0000

I used to love Michelle Shocked when in college, and in fact thought she was a lesbian. Thought she was being facetious and ridiculing the Westboro church with her latest comments. But no. Just read up on her, and she’s a crazy Pentecostal born again.

By: redblack

redblack — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 12:53:43 +0000

G – decrying “political correctness” is an attempt to excuse being impolite. might as well just come out and say, “i’m not polite,” or, “i’m kind of a loud-mouth and i reserve the right to offend others – even when i don’t have to.”
.
there are other and better american traditions than conformity and the tyranny of the majority; namely subtlety, respect for others, and being polite.

By: Kayleigh

Kayleigh — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 12:50:58 +0000

I kind of see CJ Boffoli’s point. I’ve found that I can sometimes forgive an artist’s political “transgressions” (meaning views I disagree with) if I like their art enough. And the reverse is also true: if I’m lukewarm about an artist, their political actions can make me like them more. Even a lame singer sounds better if I’ve read he advocates for animals.
.
If I really loved an artist who said something like Michelle Shocked said? I just don’t know. That kind of hate doesn’t feel political to me. It feels mean.