There was booing and sexist comments made as the San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus left the field at the second annual “Out in the Park event hosted by the Padres.
Was there a clerical error? Did someone not get the memo? What caused this embarrassment to happen? Was it all over money and ticket sales? Here is the report by the The San Diego Gay & Lesbian News
The San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus (SDGMC) didn’t get a chance to sing the National Anthem at The annual “Out at the Park” event at Petco Park on Saturday, instead their microphones were turned off, and the Padres played a recording of a female in their place, then they were subject to homophobic slurs as they left the podium.
SDGMC said in a statement that all of the volunteers were at the ready to sing the anthem, but crowds had to listen to the women’s recording instead.
Further it is reported that the Padres didn’t attempt to stop the pre-recorded track and allowed it to play in full.
Days prior to the game the SDGMC says that the Padres organization tried to prevent the choir from performing by having the cast pay for their tickets in order to sing, something they say was never discussed and would have cost the small organization thousands of dollars.
The team eventually agreed to let the chorus perform, but made no mention of the pre-recorded female track according to the statement.
In the aftermath of the event, the SDGMC is calling for a full, transparent investigation into the San Diego Padres and Major League Baseball, to discover if the call to play the canned anthem was intentional or merely a mistake.
San Diego Padres President and Chief Executive Office Mike Dee has reached out to the chorus and offered an apology. He will meet with organization leaders to discuss the incident further.
The Padres did reach out to the SDGMC with a statement, but failed to address the 100 members of the chorus and their families who were embarrassed and verbally attacked.
“Out at the Park” is an annual San Diego LGBT social event that brings the community together for an evening of baseball. This is the first time that the SDGMC has experienced backlash from fans and the Padres. – sdgln.com
What are your thoughts, Instincters? I mean, if they didn’t like their performance last year, why invite them back?
Were the boos in support of SDGMC or against the chorus?
Leave your thoughts below or on our Facebook page.
On September 1, 2015 the San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus took to the Petco Park baseball field to sing the National Anthem before the Padres game for the first-ever Pride Night. – youtube.com
The following is the full statement from the San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus Facebook Page.
“You Sing Like a Girl”
San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus Statement on
San Diego Padres National Anthem IncidentSAN 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.
good
good
I was there and this is being
I was there and this is being played out a lot more dramatically than it should be. Most people are unaware that when a group sings the national anthem it is a pre-recorded track. The simple matter of fact, the wrong track was played. It was a very uncomfortable situation for everyone in the stadium. I sat in left field, right were they were walking off the field. They got an ovation from most of us there. I'm not downgrading that there were ignorant fans in the audience. I had one behind me that scoffed when they were introduced. I, in the best and tactful way I could, turned around and stated. Hey, gays like baseball too! He responded with, really? I again turned around with a pretty nasty look and said, yes we do! The Padres messed up, it was embarrassing, they have since fired the 3rd party that handles pre game ceremonies and the guy at the helm of the sound that night. They have publicly apologized to the chorus, they have admitted their mistake and taken action. Whether this was a simple mistake or they were having issues with the pre recorded chorus track and had to play just a canned version, or this was a malicious attack. No one will ever know.
Evan,
Evan,
Thanks for writing in. I was wondering if one of our readers were there. Thanks for your take on the story.
Didn’t hear any clapping???
Didn't hear any clapping??? Maybe the video was cut short! Either way United STATES of America… For a country that was so progressive, you leave little hope for a backward town like Australia… At least you were able to get the "gays" on a football field….
Australia is a town now?
Australia is a town now?
Homophobia is a byproduct of
Homophobia is a byproduct of Judeo-christianity.
This is just a tiny preview
This is just a tiny preview of what we have to look forward to if the GOP win this election. Trump has made it acceptable again to be a bigot in public and to be loud about it. This is how America dies, not in an explosion, not in a whimper, but in a shout of hatred and bigotry.