The San Diego Padres are currently 19-26, sitting in last place in National League West. We know they are bad at baseball. But might the team also be homophobic?!? Allow us to explain… On Saturday afternoon at Petco Park, The San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus was brought in to sing “The Star Spangled Banner” prior to the team’s game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Simple enough, right? Something that has been done a million times, no? A recording of the choir was supposed to play over the loudspeakers, presumably so the actual choir could lip-sync on the field… but something went wrong. Instead, the recording was of a woman singing the anthem blared for all to hear. Was this a simple mistake? Or the sign of a much larger issue within the organization? “I really want to believe that it was an error,” Bob Lehman, the choir’s executive director, told the Union-Tribune of what happened. “But the first thought was, did they do this on purpose?” Oddly, the mistaken recording was never stopped; it played throughout the duration of the national anthem. The accusation would be that the team, or someone within the team, purposely tried to embarrass the all-male choir by making it seem like gay me sounded like women. The choir said the incident raised “serious questions about homophobia within the San Diego Padres organization and its relationship with the LGBT community.” It alleged that the mix-up followed “several days of troubling comments and behavior” from within the team, as it supposedly tried to prevent the singers from performing unless they each bought a ticket to the game. That decision was later overturned. In response to the incident, San Diego issued a lengthy statement. “The Padres organization is proud of our longstanding commitment to inclusion – within both our sport and our community,” the read in part. “We deeply regret that a mistake on our part has called this into question, but accept full responsibility.” It also said an investigation yielded “no evidence of malicious intent on the part of any individuals involved.” Watch the strange performance below to see what transpired on the field:
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Gay Choir Accuses San Diego Padres of Homophobia
