The San Diego Padres have apologized for the embarrassing incident with the San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus at Petco Field over the weekend.
“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 MLB team said in its a statement to TheWrap. “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.”
On Saturday, the musical group took the field to sing the National Anthem as part of the LGBT-themed Pride Night at the stadium.
The group was supposed to sing along to a pre-recorded track of their own voices. However, when they began singing, a female voice on a different pre-recorded track filled the stadium. Some accused the Padres of homophobia for drowning out the voices of the gay men’s group.
The Padres management claims that the situation was the result of an “unintentional mistake” by a contractor, with whom the franchise has terminated its relationship. The team has also taken disciplinary action against its own employee who was responsible for producing