Mark Metcalfe/Getty ImagesNo one's going to be forgetting Michelle Shocked's anti-gay tirade anytime soon, especially not now that the audio has been released.
In the damning clip (provided by the San Francisco Bay Guardian Online), the self-proclaimed born-again Christian tells the crowd, "Once Prop 8 gets instated and once preachers are held at gunpoint and forced to marry the homosexuals, I'm pretty sure that that will be the signal for Jesus to come on back."
"You said you wanted reality," she continued. "If someone would be so gracious as to tweet out that Michelle Shocked just said from stage, ‘God hates faggots.' Would you do it now?"
(Former) fans of Shocked questioned her as she was onstage, but she stood behind her hateful message.
Later, the singer claimed she "[did] not, nor have I ever, said or believed that God hates homosexuals (or anyone else)" and said she was "damn sorry" for what happened at the San Francisco live-music venue.
Gay rights advocate and comedian Margaret Cho responded to Shocked's tirade with a Huffington Post editorial. "When the shock wore off, I found that people were super angry, but I just got scared. I think that as a queer person of color, I have been scared my entire life," Cho said. "I get over it bit by bit, enough to get by and live, but then something like this happens, and it's like getting gay bashed all over again."
Cho added: " When someone like Michelle Shocked, formerly a beloved, alt queer muse and maker of the '90s, decides that it is OK to hate us and lets us know that God does too, I am truly sickened, as she of all people should know what this means."
"And the effect of someone saying 'God hates fags' can never be underestimated either," she added. "It's a license to kill. It's a death sentence. It's not funny. It's not OK. It's not something I can let go easily, because I know what it truly means."