Padres Apologize To San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus After Botched Anthem

The San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus, who were set to perform the national anthem before the Padres’ home game against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday, instead left Petco Park to the sound of boos, jeers and heckling.

Padres Apologize To San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus After Botched Anthem

Rather than the chorus singing along to a pre-recorded track, the stadium was treated to a recording of a woman singing the anthem.

The Padres stated late Sunday that they had disciplined an employee and stopped working with the contractor who was responsible for ruining the performance, which occurred during the “Out at the Park” event. The event is intended to be part of a special LGBT pride celebration at Petco Park.

Several members of the chorus accused the team of homophobia and demanded an investigation by Major League Baseball.

The Padres said in a statement that there was “no evidence of malicious intent” by any of the individuals involved in the mishap, but the organization blamed personnel for not immediately intervening and fixing the situation.

“We once again sincerely apologize to members of the San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus, their families, and those who came out to support their Pride Night performance,” the team said in its statement.

Some fans even mocked the singers in the Men’s Chorus, saying things like “That’s the best you’ve ever sounded,” and “you sing like a girl.”

The gay men’s chorus has performed at Padres games several times in the past, including last season, so there didn’t seem to be a reason why Saturday’s performance should have been a problem.

Padres president Mike Dee later contacted the men’s chorus to apologize and offered to meet with the group.

The group’s executive director, Bob Lehman, asked not only the Padres and MLB but also the City of San Diego to investigate for possible hate crimes. The full statement from Lehman is below.

SAN DIEGO, May 22, 2016—What should have been a night of joy and celebration at Petco Park last night, instead turned into a nightmare raising serious questions about homophobia within the San Diego Padres organization and its relationship with the LGBT community.

Before the start of the last night’s San Diego Padres game, 100 volunteer singers of the San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus took to the field to proudly sing the National Anthem. Instead, in front of the large crowd gathered for the LA Dodgers game, the San Diego Padres played the recorded voice of a woman singing the anthem.

No attempt was made to stop the recording and start over. No announcement of apology was made to the singers or their friends and families in the stands. No attempt to correct the situation occurred other than to force the 100 men to stand in the spotlight of center field for the song’s duration and then be escorted off the field to the heckles of baseball fans shouting homophobic taunts including “You sing like a girl.”

This incident followed several days of troubling comments and behavior within the San Diego Padres organization. Three days before the game, San Diego Padres representatives aggressively sought to prevent singers from performing the National Anthem unless they purchased a ticket to the game—even if they did not plan to stay for the game—which was not part of any previous discussion or written or verbal agreement and would have cost the small, community-based non-profit thousands of dollars. The demand eventually was rescinded on Friday following repeated complaints made by SDGMC and San Diego Pride to San Diego Padres management.

With this as background, we call on the San Diego Padres and Major League Baseball to immediately launch a full and transparent investigation into the incident to determine if someone or some people intentionally engaged in anti-gay discrimination or a hate crime by playing a female’s voice to represent a group of gay men with the purpose of denigrating and/or ridiculing gay men. The historic significance of such an act is not lost on the LGBT community—especially in relation to professional sports—and added to the depth of embarrassment experienced by the singers and their families.

We also call upon the City of San Diego City Attorney’s Office and the City of San Diego Human Relations Commission to independently investigate this incident to determine if members of the San Diego Padres organization engaged in activity in violation of the San Diego Human Rights Ordinance or engaged in any deliberate hate crimes based on sexual orientation.

We applaud San Diego Padres President and Chief Executive Office Mike Dee for reaching out to our organization to apologize and to offer to meet with LGBT leaders to discuss the incident. We look forward to this meeting. We believe it is important to work together with the San Diego Padres organization to build bridges within the LGBT community rather than burn them down as happened last night.

However, we are very disappointed with the San Diego Padres dismissively brief two sentence statement at 9:37 p.m. on Saturday, May 21, 2016 which did not appropriately address the gravity of the situation nor pay due to the 100 volunteers who took to the field in celebration and were led off in humiliation.

 

The Padres won 3-2 in the 11th inning on Saturday after Yangervis Solarte drew a bases-loaded walk to end the game. The Padres then lost to the Dodgers 9-5 at Petco Park on Sunday.

PHOTO: SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – MAY 20: Christian Bethancourt #12 of the San Diego Padres, center, is congratulated after hitting a two-run home run during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at PETCO Park on May 20, 2016 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Denis Poroy/Getty Images)