# Michelle Shocked SHOCKED to find that GAYmbling is going on in here! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 19, 2013, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michelle-shocked-shocked-to-find-that-gaymbling-is-going-on-in-here/653327 "2013-03-19T03:17:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michelle-shocked-shocked-to-find-that-gaymbling-is-going-on-in-here/653327/81 "2013-03-20T21:38:58Z")
Whatever. I’m so through with her now. ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michelle-shocked-shocked-to-find-that-gaymbling-is-going-on-in-here/653327/82 "2013-03-20T21:43:17Z")
[QUOTE=Michelle Shocked] That means upholding my punk rock values in the most evangelical enclaves and, in this case, speaking up for the most fearful of fundamentalists in, well, a San Francisco music hall full of Michelle Shocked fans. [/QUOTE] Ahh, she likes to troll is what it comes down to. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michelle-shocked-shocked-to-find-that-gaymbling-is-going-on-in-here/653327/83 "2013-03-20T21:46:12Z")
Given nearly thirty years of shows and her folking around in folk circles, and having a high proportion of her audience being gay, and nothing like this ever having been heard out of her before, her explanation makes the most sense to me. Poor 'chelle, I think your career now will be about the same as Michael Richards, who probably doesn’t hate black people either. ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michelle-shocked-shocked-to-find-that-gaymbling-is-going-on-in-here/653327/84 "2013-03-20T22:10:13Z")
> [@bup](#): > > and nothing like this ever having been heard out of her before, her explanation makes the most sense to me. See post 49 where she said: _“You are looking at the world’s greatest homophobe. Ask God what he thinks._" ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michelle-shocked-shocked-to-find-that-gaymbling-is-going-on-in-here/653327/85 "2013-03-20T22:22:12Z")
Just horrible. It’s like Cat Stevens calling for Salman Rushdie’s death horrible. It does seem like she suffered a psychotic break, but now her statements that her rant was misinterpreted don’t seem jibe with reality either. It’s sad. Still, she’s made a lot of great music, and I won’t stop listening to those of her albums I already own: _The Texas Campfire Tapes_, _Short, Sharp, Shocked_, _Captain Swing_, and _Arkansas Traveler_. She’s not the same person that she was then. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michelle-shocked-shocked-to-find-that-gaymbling-is-going-on-in-here/653327/86 "2013-03-21T00:23:06Z")
> [@stpauler](#): > > See post 49 where she said: > _“You are looking at the world’s greatest homophobe. Ask God what he thinks._" Whoa. > [@Mango](#): > > Why!? Why does everyone think that I’m gay!? ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michelle-shocked-shocked-to-find-that-gaymbling-is-going-on-in-here/653327/87 "2013-03-21T00:49:56Z")
What’s with the title? WTF is “GAYmbling” supposed to mean? ---
**Author:** ![Suil\_Dubh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85f322/32.png) [@Suil\_Dubh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suil_Dubh)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michelle-shocked-shocked-to-find-that-gaymbling-is-going-on-in-here/653327/88 "2013-03-21T01:03:24Z")
> [@The\_Hamster\_King](#): > > Almost certainly. She was a skate punk before she was a folky. Aha! I always thought she must have been. Thanks for that. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michelle-shocked-shocked-to-find-that-gaymbling-is-going-on-in-here/653327/89 "2013-03-21T01:13:34Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > What’s with the title? WTF is “GAYmbling” supposed to mean? It’s a play on [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjbPi00k_ME) scene from _Casablanca_. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michelle-shocked-shocked-to-find-that-gaymbling-is-going-on-in-here/653327/90 "2013-03-21T01:14:02Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > What’s with the title? WTF is “GAYmbling” supposed to mean? _Casablanca_ reference… ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michelle-shocked-shocked-to-find-that-gaymbling-is-going-on-in-here/653327/91 "2013-03-21T01:23:50Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > It’s a play on [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjbPi00k_ME) scene from _Casablanca_. > [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > _Casablanca_ reference… Ah, maybe I would have caught the reference if the OP’s title had incorporated wordplay from an eminently quotable timeless classic. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michelle-shocked-shocked-to-find-that-gaymbling-is-going-on-in-here/653327/92 "2013-03-21T03:12:26Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > Ah, maybe I would have caught the reference if the OP’s title had incorporated wordplay from an eminently quotable timeless classic. You mean like Rio? Ok, I listened to the uploaded audio twice and I’m still not sure what her position is. At my most charitable I think she’s trying to say, I love every soul in this room (she did say _that_), I don’t hate the sinner I hate the sin, don’t be so hard on the Christians, they’re just scared, except the ones that are really assholes. I think, maybe, could’a been waaaay clearer. ETA, dammit, now I’m going to have to watch Casablanca again. ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michelle-shocked-shocked-to-find-that-gaymbling-is-going-on-in-here/653327/93 "2013-03-21T04:01:46Z")
> [@The\_Hamster\_King](#): > > More info: > > [Michelle Shocked Responds To Anti-Gay Rant Reports](http://www.buzzfeed.com/tessastuart/michelle-shocked-responds-to-anti-gay-rant-reports) > > It sounds like she wanted to make some sort of statement along the lines “Even though some Christians are intolerant, we should remember that they’re people too and we should try to understand how their fear makes them act like that.” Wow. I never would have thought there’d be a “clarification” message that I would actually buy, but those statements do read as sincere and I find them entirely plausible. But damn did she do a _horrible_ job of communicating that message effectively at the actual concert. > [@cjepson](#): > > From that article, it seems that at least one of the “quotes” in the OP was inaccurate. Shocked didn’t say “God hates fags and you can tweet that I said so”; she said “You can all go on Twitter and say that Michelle Shocked said that God hates fags.” > > The former is pretty unambiguous. The latter, I can see the possibility that it could have been a very badly worded attempt to heckle the hecklers… Yep. I accurately quoted the article that I linked, but the article itself must have been relying on recollections of her words rather than any hard verifiable source like a recording or transcript. The official statements issued are pretty good, the whole thing is still a little murky though because of the 2011 quote “You are looking at the world’s greatest homophobe. Ask God what He thinks” as well as the fact that her _very first_ response to the outrage on Sunday night was a tweet “Truth is leading to painful confrontation”. > [@drastic\_quench](#): > > Ah, maybe I would have caught the reference if the OP’s title had incorporated wordplay from an eminently quotable timeless classic. About 95% of the reason I started this Thread was because when I saw the story I immediately thought of such an awesome Thread title and I was just excited to get to use it. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michelle-shocked-shocked-to-find-that-gaymbling-is-going-on-in-here/653327/94 "2013-03-21T04:07:57Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > An earlier use of the phrase in rock ‘n’ roll was on Pink Floyd’s _Dark Side of the Moon_ where it crops up in the middle of “Us and Them.” (Spoken by roadie Roger the Hat.) Kind of seemed like the obvious source to me. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michelle-shocked-shocked-to-find-that-gaymbling-is-going-on-in-here/653327/95 "2013-03-21T05:21:17Z")
I desperately want to believe that she’s not actually a homophobe, that she’s not really batshit insane. I haven’t kept up with her for ages, but I was probably the, or at least one of the first people to play her music on the radio in the midwest, if not the country. I played 2 songs from The Texas Campfire Tapes (“5am In Amsterdam” and “Down On Thomas Street”) and then later, via a pre-release promo, was probably one of the first people to play [“Anchorage”](http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;_ylt=A2KLqIMPlkpRpxkAxqH7w8QF;_ylu=X3oDMTBvcTJzcm5xBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDdmlkBHZ0aWQDVjEzMQ--?p=Michelle+Shocked+Anchorage&vid=8e1e0af7fae219ddf423292531bf2726&l=3%3A22&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts1.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DU.4784487128891536%26pid%3D15.1&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fv.youku.com%2Fv_show%2Fid_XMjk4NjA1NTg4.html&tit=%E8%A7%86%E9%A2%91%3A+%E5%AE%89%E7%A7%91%E9%9B%B7%E5%A5%87%EF%BC%88Michelle+Shocked%EF%BC%89&c=1&sigr=11fm74hiu&fr=yfp-t-900&tt=b) from Short Sharp Shocked on a “New Releases” show. Overall, her music wasn’t enough of my thing to keep up with, but I liked a lot of the songs and I liked her storytelling. Plus she was damned cute back then. [“When I Grow Up”](http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;_ylt=A2KLqIVIl0pRZCEApHP7w8QF;_ylu=X3oDMTBvcTJzcm5xBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDdmlkBHZ0aWQDVjEzMQ--?p=michelle+shocked+when+i+grow+up&vid=909f6e9c3e0e6e2619c1c8dfd43134dd&l=&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts3.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DV.4717781983363170%26pid%3D15.1&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.spike.com%2Fvideo-clips%2F7t9bcr%2Fmichelle-shocked-when-i-grow-up&tit=Michelle+Shocked+-+When+I+Grow+Up&c=1&sigr=127io43fl&age=0&fr=yfp-t-900&tt=b) has always been my favorite song by her too. It’s just so cooL, lyrically and musically! ---
**Author:** ![B.Serum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/b.serum/32/14266_2.png) [@B.Serum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B.Serum)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michelle-shocked-shocked-to-find-that-gaymbling-is-going-on-in-here/653327/96 "2013-03-21T07:41:18Z")
I’ve been a big Michelle Shocked fan ever since I heard [The Greener Side](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfpXYrkxWK4) with it’s video that lampoons Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to Love” video in the early 90’s. I even caught one of her show’s here in LA at McCabe’s (which just cancelled her upcoming appearance) like about a year ago. She’s always been a fiercely indie musician who follows her own muse. She can rock out on everything from punk to rock to blues to folk to pop to gospel to country and everything in between. And she found God a little while ago and things began to change. I don’t think she’s a hateful person, but she has contracted a case of Bible literalist Christianity that is attacking her liberal tendencies and I suspect she’s been in a state of cognitive dissonance ever since. Add a little aging musician inarticulate rambling to the mix and we get the shitstorm that has everybody asking _“Who the hell is Michelle Shocked?!”_ It’s amazing how often life imitates art: She has a song from her early period called ["Campus Crusade](http://www.michelleshocked.com/lyrics_campus_crusade.htm)" that mocks Evangelical Christians. It starts with… > [@](#): > > Sister Cindy used to be a disco queen > 'Til she come to Jesus and now she’s saved > Out on the West Mall with old Brother Jed > Now she’s fighting the Holy War > The Campus Crusade > Every Spring they seem to invade > Oh my God, it’s the lunatic fringe on parade In the song, the “crusaders” get in a little hot water by offending the crowd, and the song ends with… > [@](#): > > I’m gonna jump headfirst into that lake of fire > Sister Cindy, Brother Jed, I’m forced to tell > 'Cause with the likes of you campus crusaders up in heaven > I think hell is gonna be just swell ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michelle-shocked-shocked-to-find-that-gaymbling-is-going-on-in-here/653327/97 "2013-03-21T12:23:38Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I was a taken a little aback at her album _Arkansas Traveller_. She explained in the liner notes that it was in the tradition of minstrelsy, and that anything that seemed racist should be taken in that context. For example, _Jump Jim Crow_ contains racial stereotypes and the word ‘jigaboo’. The point of that particular line was that the Black man is ‘genuine’, while Whites who emulate them are poseurs. But on the surface the song seem racist, and it’s always made me uncomfortable. Check the liner notes again; that’s Taj Mahal on guest vocals (and possibly guitar) on that song. I think her apology was sincere and her explanation truthful. This is “Elvis Costello talking smack about Ray Charles” bad, and she hasn’t had a recording career in a while. I wish her the best. A couple years ago, I bought a CD of **Mercury Poise** for my (gay) niece. I’d previously given her her first Ani DiFranco and Seater-Kinney albums, which she liked enough. This one, she discreetly re-gifted to another relative, who discreetly re-gifted it to me. I love Michelle, but her stock has been dropping for a while now. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michelle-shocked-shocked-to-find-that-gaymbling-is-going-on-in-here/653327/98 "2013-03-21T13:41:49Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > Check the liner notes again; that’s Taj Mahal on guest vocals (and possibly guitar) on that song. I’m not fully awake yet. What is the relevance of this? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michelle-shocked-shocked-to-find-that-gaymbling-is-going-on-in-here/653327/99 "2013-03-21T14:08:29Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I’m not fully awake yet. What is the relevance of this? 😕 **Krokodil** believes that a black musician’s involvement is supposed to cancel out any uncomfortable feelings you may have listening to the song. ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michelle-shocked-shocked-to-find-that-gaymbling-is-going-on-in-here/653327/100 "2013-03-21T14:08:53Z")
[The interview is streaming live here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryquDmVd7xw&feature=plcp) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michelle-shocked-shocked-to-find-that-gaymbling-is-going-on-in-here/653327.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michelle-shocked-shocked-to-find-that-gaymbling-is-going-on-in-here/653327.md?page=6)