Tipper Gore
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Mary Elizabeth Gore (born August 19, 1948), commonly referred to as Tipper Gore, is the wife of former Vice President Al Gore and was Second Lady of the United States from 1993 until 2001.
Born Mary Elizabeth Aitcheson in Washington, D.C., she grew up in Arlington, Virginia. Her parents divorced when she was four years old and she was raised by her mother and grandmother, who gave her the affectionate name Tipper, which stuck all through her schooling. She attended St. Agnes (now St. Stephen's and St. Agnes School), a private Episcopalian school in Alexandria, Virginia, where she excelled at athletics and played the drums for an all-girl band, The Wildcats.
She met her future husband, Al Gore, at his high school senior prom (St. Albans School in Washington, D.C.) and they were soon dating. When Gore went north to attend Harvard University, Tipper followed, attending Garland Junior College and later Boston University.
Mrs. Gore received a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from Boston University in 1970 and her master's degree in Psychology from George Peabody College, which later merged into Vanderbilt University in 1975. Mrs. Gore worked as a newspaper photographer for the Nashville Tennessean until her husband was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1976.
In 1984, she co-founded the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) because she heard her 12-year-old daughter playing "Darling Nikki" by Prince. Critics of the PMRC, including Jello Biafra, Dave Mustaine, and Frank Zappa, have accused the PMRC of conducting public and under-the-table censorship campaigns against various recording artists and have pointed out the PMRC's ties to the American religious right.
In 2000, Tipper Gore began to make public appearances as a "mental health" advocate. She has been criticised by human rights organizations for her ambiguous stance towards involuntary psychiatric treatment, including forced drugging and commitment of people labelled as mentally ill.
In 2002, Tipper was urged by her supporters to run for the vacant U.S. Senate seat her husband once held in Tennessee, which was being vacated by Fred Dalton Thompson. However, Tipper declined the offer, stating it was not the right thing for her at that time.
In 2002, she and Al wrote two books on family values and the transformed American family: Joined at the Heart and Spirit of Family. The Gores also hold an annual conference in Nashville that bring together families and those who work with them to talk and design better ways to strengthen family life in America. At the center of Family Re-Union is the belief that programs and guidelines should respond to the needs of families and communities and should build on their strengths.
Al and Tipper Gore now reside in Nashville, TN. They have four children: Karenna Gore Schiff (August 6, 1973), Kristin (June 5, 1977), Sarah (January 7, 1979) and Albert III (October 19, 1982). They also have two grandchildren (via Karenna), Anna and Wyatt.
Tipper Gore in popular culture
Tipper Gore is the subject of the song "Hook In Mouth" by Megadeth, available on their So Far, So Good...So What! album, released in 1988, in which frontman Dave Mustaine accuses Gore of re-writing documents and stories and obstructing freedom. She is also the subject "Startin' Up a Posse" by Anthrax, found on their 1991 release Attack of the Killer B's (sung by Scott Ian), which also accuses Gore of obstructing freedom of speech, but humrously accuses the PMRC of being "whores" and uses heavy levels of profanity just to get under Gore's skin.
In addition to these songs, she is mentioned in the songs 'Shelter Me' by Cinderella, 'IfwhiteAmericatoldthetruthforonedayitsworldwouldfallapart' by Manic Street Preachers, 'KKK bitch' by Body Count, 'White America' by Eminem, 'Sucks' by KMFDM, 'Lovely' by Suicidal Tendencies, 'Censorshit' by the Ramones, as well as 'Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock' by Harry and the Potters. Warrant also have a track on their Cherry Pie album called Ode to Tipper Gore, which is just quotes she would most definitely oppose. Canadian Alternative Rockers Furnaceface penned the anti-Tipper ditty ironically entitled 'We Love You, Tipper Gore'.
In his book The Ice Opinion, the rapper Ice-T wrote [page 98], "Tipper Gore is the only woman I ever directly called a bitch on any of my records, and I meant that in the most negative sense of the word." On the song "Freedom of Speech", Ice-T had also written lyrics that implied that she did not understand the nature of sex.