Arts & Entertainment
Gay choir outraged after national anthem flub at San Diego Padres game
LGBT group left confused and hurt at baseball game
The San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus was scheduled to perform “The Star Spangled Banner” at the San Diego Padres versus the Los Angeles Dodgers game on Saturday, but a recording of a woman singing was played over the loudspeakers in place of their performance.
The San-Diego Tribune reports the incident occurred during a “Pride Night” game for LGBT baseball fans at Petco Stadium in San Diego, Calif.
“No attempt was made to stop the recording and start over,” the chorus wrote in a Facebook post. “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,'” the post continued.
“I really want to believe that it was an error,” Bob Lehman, the choir’s executive director, told the San-Diego Union-Tribune. “But the first thought was, did they do this on purpose?”
The San Diego Padres issues a statement apologizing for the incident and said the mistake happened through “a third-party contractor” in the Petco Park control room. The team also said disciplinary action would be taken against the employees involved in game production for Saturday.
“The Padres organization is proud of our longstanding commitment to inclusion — within both our sport and our community,” the statement reads. “We deeply regret that a mistake on our part has called this into question, but accept full responsibility.”
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