Michelle Shocked, the singer-songwriter once a favourite of lefties and liberal types, stunned a San Francisco crowd on Sunday night (March 17, 2013) with a vicious anti-gay rant. The singer won acclaim with her folksy albums The Texas Campfire Tapes and Short Sharp Shocked, though turned a born-again Christian and began pontificating on her views of California's legal definition of marriage this weekend.

"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," Shocked told the crowd at Yoshi's in San Francisco, leading many to walk out of the show. "You are going to leave here and tell people, 'Michelle Shocked said God hates faggots.'" The club's manger attempted to end the show, though Shocked continued playing until venue staff literally pulled the plug, turning the stage lights off. 

The singer, 51, became a figurehead of American alternate music in the late 1980s and early 1990s with her radical political lyrics and raucous sound. Despite her devout Christian views, audience members were taken by surprise by her comments on Sunday. "She said gay marriage would cause the end of the world," tweeted one gig-goer. "She's a total bigot and said so on stage," agreed another. One fan who walked out of the show said, "It was unreal. We had to leave." Shocked is yet to comment directly, though cryptically tweeted, "Truth is leading to painful confrontation."

Responding to rumors that she is a lesbian, Shocked told the Dallas Voice in 2008, "According to my Bible, which I didn't write, homosexuality is immoral. But homosexuality is no more less a sin than fornication. And I'm a fornicator with a capital F."