Melissa Etheridge in Bed with Rick Warren?

Rocker and out lesbian Melissa Etheridge is playing nice with one of her fans, the notoriously anti-gay Rev. Rick Warren, whom Barack Obama has chosen to deliver the invocation at his inauguration Jan. 20.

The unlikely pair met because she was slated to perform at an inter-faith event organized by a Muslim advocacy group where he was scheduled to deliver the keynote address, Reuters reported.

Etheridge blogged on The Huffington Postabout how she initially believed he was likely a typical hate-monger but she opened her heart and mind once she spoke with him. “This Pastor Rick must surely be one hate spouting, money grabbing, bad hair televangelist like all the others,” Etheridge wrote. “He probably has his own gay little secret bathroom stall somewhere, you know.”

Despite her preconceived notions of Warren, based on public opinion, Etheridge discovered that the pastor is a fan of her music. “This didn't sound like a gay hater, much less a preacher,” Etheridge wrote.

“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,” Etheridge wrote.

Just last week Etheridge faced off with The View’s conservative co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck over gay marriage, but Etheridge --who’s married to Tammy Lynn Michaels, with whom she's raising a family -- listened to Warren when he told her he regretted a sermon he delivered to his congregation in which he mentioned the anti-gay marriage measure Prop. 8, incest and pedophiles in the same breath.

The sermon later wound up on video on the Web.

Warren invited her to his church and she invited him to visit her home and family, Etheridge blogged.

The lesbian icon went on to suggest that gay marriage supporters reach out and open up to the likes of Warren rather than protesting and marching.

“Maybe in our anger, as we consider marches and boycotts, perhaps we can consider stretching out our hands,” she wrote. “Maybe instead of marching on his church, we can show up en mass and volunteer for one of the many organizations affiliated with his church that work for HIV/AIDS causes all around the world.”