Barack Obama’s progressive base has started fighting back against him. Many gay activists are up in arms over the president-elect’s pick of Pastor Rick Warren to give the invocation at next month’s Inauguration. Warren, leader the the politically influential Saddleback Ranch, has invited activists’ ire after repeatedly speaking out against the so-called sins of homosexuality. While anger rages, however, one of the gay community’s biggest stars, Melissa Etheridge, has come out to defend Warren, whom she insists is no ‘gay hater.’

Etheridge, a gay Grammy Award-winning singer and breast-cancer survivor, writes in a column for The Huffington Post that she had never heard of Warren, a pastor who supported California’s Proposition 8 banning gay marriage in that state, before this latest uproar. She, too, was ready to dislike him, thinking, "This Pastor Rick must surely be one hate-spouting, money-grabbing, bad-hair televangelist like all the others," after all she heard in the media. But then, during a recent Muslim Public Affairs Council event she attended for a stop on her Christmas album tour, she met Warren, who was a guest speaker.

Wanting to send a message of peace, not war, Etheridge sent Warren her number, and the pastor promptly called her the day of the event.

Here’s what happened, in her words:

On the day of the conference I received a call from Pastor Rick, and before I could say anything, he told me what a fan he was. He had most of my albums from the very first one. What? This didn’t sound like a gay hater, much less a preacher. He explained in very thoughtful words that as a Christian he believed in equal rights for everyone. He believed every loving relationship should have equal protection. He struggled with proposition 8 because he didn’t want to see marriage redefined as anything other than between a man and a woman. He said he regretted his choice of words in his video message to his congregation about proposition 8 when he mentioned pedophiles and those who commit incest. He said that in no way, is that how he thought about gays. He invited me to his church, I invited him to my home to meet my wife and kids. He told me of his wife’s struggle with breast cancer just a year before mine. When we met later that night, he entered the room with open arms and an open heart. We agreed to build bridges to the future.

Etheridge goes on to encourage the gay and lesbian community to not focus on marching on Warren’s church, but rather to focus on changing minds and hearts. "I will be attending the Inauguration with my family, and with hope in my heart," writes the mother of four. "I know we are headed in the direction of marriage equality and equal protection for all families."

Though Etheridge hoped her words would quell the firestorm, many activists and writers are now coming out against the singer herself. Message boards and online comments insist that Etheridge should keep her comments to herself. They’re particularly upset that Etheridge seems alright with Warren’s private apology about his actions, and didn’t encourage him to do so publicly. Some also say Etheridge shouldn’t be so quick to embrace Warren.

"Melissa, Warren and his ilk aren’t ‘afraid’ of gays: They think gays are sinners who are convertible to their belief system, which includes no gay sex and straight sex only in marriage," someone writes on the pogressive blog, La Figa.

Meanwhile, Etheridge’s partner, Tammy Lynne Michaels, has also taken some heat for her blog post, in which she says: "I’m starting to think that there are indeed some people … some well-meaning and loving people … who are not at all ANTI-GAY, that’s not why they don’t want the word marriage used … they are merely RELIGIOUS. and for religious (archaic) reasons, they want to stay safe and respectful to WHAT THEY’VE BEEN TAUGHT."