Padres in hot water over national anthem mixup

Update: MLB has confirmed it will investigate the incident. Read more here.

The San Diego Gay Men's Chorus is calling for an investigation of a mixup that occurred at a San Diego Padres game Saturday night, when a recording of a woman's voice was played over 100 male chorus members who took the field to perform the national anthem.

The anthem is not always performed live, and this was an instance where a taped version was to be played with the performers on the field. Saturday was scheduled as a "Pride Night" game, aimed at engaging lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender baseball fans. Members of the chorus said they were shocked and embarrassed by the incident, and want to find out how it happened.

"I really want to believe that it was an error," said Bob Lehman, executive director of the San Diego Gay Men's Chorus. "But the first thought was, did they do this on purpose?"

Lehman wrote a lengthy letter to the Padres Sunday morning requesting answers and apologies about the incident.

The Padres issued a one-paragraph statement during Saturday night's game to apologize for the incident. Late Sunday, it issued another statement, saying it had investigated the matter and found the mistake wasn't intentional. The Padres also said that it had fired a third-party contractor and disciplined a team employee over the incident.

"After a thorough examination of the events that occurred during last night’s National Anthem, we have concluded our internal investigation and have found no evidence of malicious intent on the part of any individuals involved. Based both on the unintentional mistake that was made, as well as the failure to immediately intervene and correct the situation by those who had oversight, we have terminated our relationship with the third-party contractor who was responsible for the error, and taken disciplinary action against our employee who was responsible for the game production on Saturday."

The incident gained national and even international traction in media outlets ranging from the New York Daily News and USA Today, to the British publication The Daily Mail. People on both sides of the issue weighed in on Twitter, arguing whether the incident was offensive or the reaction to it overblown. The Chicago Gay Men's Chorus posted a musical video in support of their San Diego counterparts.

Padres officials would not comment on the record about the incident, although a team official said it was a mistake with no malicious intent. The official added that the San Diego Gay Men's Chorus has performed the anthem at Petco on several other occasions without incident. The Padres have offered events oriented toward the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community for several years, including "Pride Nights" such as the one offered Saturday, and "Out at the Park," an official said.

Lehman said the chorus performed last September, and had a good experience at the park. So when Padres officials asked the organization to perform again this year, they were eager to participate.

RELATED: Fans react to Padres' statement

Several days before the event, however, Lehman said the Padres notified him that the singers would have to purchase tickets in order to perform, whether or not they intended to stay for the game. He said some of his members could not afford tickets, and they had not been required to buy tickets for their performance in September.

It's unclear whether the Padres typically require performers to buy tickets in order to sing at the park. Heather Robert, board president of the San Diego Women’s Chorus, a lesbian-identified feminist chorus that is a sister organization to the men’s chorus, said her organization had “a very good experience” singing the national anthem at Petco Park two years ago, and said members were not required to buy tickets unless they stayed for the game. However, a parent whose child sings with the San Diego Children's Choir said his daughter had to purchase a ticket to perform at Petco Park last month, even though she did not watch the game.

Lehman said he worked out a compromise that allowed singers who did not want to stay to enter the park for free, but said the last-minute miscommunication left him uneasy.

Chorus members took the field Saturday night and prepared to sing, but were surprised when a recording of a woman's voice played over the speakers.

"We were just excited to be at a game and let the audience see us and hear us and let us know that we’re sports fans too, and we’re normal guys," said RC Haus, artistic director for the chorus. "And then a woman sings over us, and it was mortifying."

The singers said they froze, uncertain whether to wait or sing.

View the photo gallery: Padres vs. Dodgers 5/22/16

"I just felt this dread come over me because I was so embarrassed," choral member Dan England said. "Some of us started to sing along. After that, we just stood there. We thought they would ask us to sing, but they just asked us to leave the field."

As they exited the field some spectators murmured encouragement or apologies for the mistake, but others jeered insults, and shouted "You sing like a girl," Lehman said. Experiencing such a blunder at Pride Night was discouraging, singers said. The fact that team officials didn't correct it immediately made matters worse, they added.

"I can understand how that happens, but what I didn’t understand why they didn’t stop the track or apologize," Haus said.

John Brown, executive director of the San Diego Human Dignity Foundation, which promotes civil rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, said he wondered if the incident was a prank, rather than an accident, and said it reflects poorly on the team.

"This is a time when the Padres are really looking to build community support," Brown said. "They’ve got to understand that the LGBT community is large in San Diego, it is supported by our community’s leaders, and the majority of people who live here. This kind of thing isn’t acceptable at all."

Members of the chorus are calling for an investigation by the team, the city of San Diego and by Major League Baseball, and have requested a meeting to discuss the incident with team officials.

Matt Awbrey, deputy chief of staff for Mayor Kevin Faulconer, said in an e-mail that the City Attorney's office had been asked to review the case. Gerry Braun, a spokesman for City Attorney Jan Goldsmith, said he did not have any information on the complaint on Sunday.

Billy Bean, a former Padres player who came out as gay in 199 and now serves as Major League Baseball's Ambassador for Inclusion, said the Padres have welcomed his efforts to connect the team to the LGBT community in San Diego, and have invited him to speak to players and employees.

"I would hope that the community recognizes that error and intent are not related," Bean tweeted Sunday.

Even if the mishap was an accident, Lehman said it falls to the Padres to make amends.

"I don’t want to live in a city where the LGBT community thinks the Padres hate them," he said. "Even if it’s perception, it’s got to be fixed."

On Sunday morning, Lehman issued a lengthy response calling for an investigation into the matter:

"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."

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Padres not new to anthem controversy