May 22, 2016

San Diego Gay Men's Chorus Humiliated On Field By Padres Organization

A statement from the San Diego Gay Men's Chorus, posted to Facebook today:
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 ...

This incident followed several days of troubling comments and behavior within the San Diego Padres organization. ...
The Padres called it a "mistake ... in the control room" and Billy Bean, Major League Baseball's ambassador for inclusion, said the playing of the recording was a "technical error". I'm not buying the "technical error" excuse. No Padres employee stopped the recording once it began playing.

Also: Outsports and Daily News.

And also: Back in 2011, the Padres had the wonderful idea of having a "Dog Tags For Kids" day.

2 comments:

FenFan said...

If they can cue and play 10 seconds of walk-up music for every home team batter and launch into celebratory songs almost immediately after every home run, then they can stop an errant song being played after a few seconds. A 90 second "technical error?" That's inexcusable.

laura k said...

^^ What FenFan said.