The Padres Are In Some Hot Water For Playing A Woman Singing The National Anthem Over The San Diego Gay Men's Choir

Reading Eagle - The San Diego Padres said late Sunday that it had disciplined an employee and stopped working with a contractor who was responsible for marring the performance of the national anthem by the San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus.

The choir’s Saturday performance was drowned out by a recording of a woman singing the national anthem that was broadcast in the stadium. The incident generated outrage, partly because the chorus was singing during “Out at the Park,” a special LGBT pride event at the stadium. Members of the San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus accused the Padres of homophobia and called for an investigation by the team as well as Major League Baseball.

The Padres said in a statement that it had conducted an internal probe and concluded that there was “no evidence of malicious intent” by any of the individuals involved in the mishap, but the organization faulted personnel for not immediately intervening and correcting 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. “The Padres organization is proud of our longstanding commitment to inclusion — within both our sport and our community. We deeply regret that a mistake on our part has called this into question, but accept full responsibility.”

Before the game began, the nearly 100-member choir was ushered to the outfield, wearing matching black dress shirts. The chorus was supposed to sing along with a pre-recorded track, which amplifies their voices for the large venue. Instead, the solo female voice was piped through the stadium. Billy Bean, the vice president of social responsibility and inclusion for Major League Baseball, said the “technical error” was “very unfortunate” and praised the Padres for supporting inclusiveness. 

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All controversy and people yelling about homophobia aside, this is the best thing to ever happen to the San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus ever. They are all the rage right now. Any time something like this happens, especially to fabulous gay men, the Earth really starts spinning for them. A few days ago they were nothing but a bunch of gay dudes who sing together, now they are at the top of the thuper cute gay chorus world. All the other gay choruses are so jelly of them. I wouldn’t even be shocked in the slightest if this was an inside job. They saw what Beyonce did with Lemonade and knew they had to hit a home run. Everyoneeeee sings the Anthem. There’s no money in singing the anthem. So what do you do? You get your feathers ruffled. Stir up some controversy and get people chatting. I bet they are fielding calls from the Ellen show and Jimmy Kimmel as we speak. Just hope nobody sees this video of them all being mad chill after it happened. I guess some people weren’t in on it. Should have sent out the “be offended” memo before the game.