Humiliated. Embarrassed. Heckled. These were some of the words used in headlines describing a ruined performance of the National Anthem by San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus at a Padres game last weekend.
The night was not supposed to go that way. Saturday night was Pride Night at Petco Park and the Padres had invited the chorus to sing “The Star Spangled Banner.” The night was part of a larger “major league” movement that confuses an LGBT welcome mat with an act of genuflection to identity politics. And while Babe Ruth might have thought the sport alone was all that was needed, this new politically correct courting is now the trend de jour.
But as the chorus stood inside the baseball diamond an unfortunate mistake tarnished the evening. When the control booth hit play a female vocalist singing the national anthem filled the stadium, not the chorus’ backing track.
At this point the chorus stood silently as the phantom female vocalist sang their performance. The anthem concluded, the chorus struck out, and the crowd provided an awkward applause.
Yes, this was a mistake, but mistakes and the entertainment industry go hand-in-hand. Michael Jackson’s hair caught on fire during a Pepsi commercial, Curtis Mayfield had lighting fall on him (almost ending his career), Michael’s sister Janet had a wardrobe malfunction, and we all remember Milli Vanilli.
The Padres, sensing a tsunami, immediately issued an apology and, before the weekend had concluded, fired the stadium DJ, reprimanded employees involved, and issued a second apology.
The fact is the Padres management was falling all over itself to appease the LGBT community. But this was not good enough for an LGBT community that believes any time something does not break its way the culprit must be discriminatory bias (not bad luck).
After insinuating the Padres sabotaged their performance because they would not buy baseball tickets, the chorus did reach a detente with the team. In a statement the chorus proclaimed, “We have met with Mr. [Mike] Dee [Padres chief executive] and he has agreed to meet with and work closely with the LGBT community to bring our communities together with constructive, positive change.”
But wasn’t that what the Padres were doing in the first place? The Padres held a Pride Night, what else could be expected?
This star-spangled debacle exposes an ugly side of LGBT politics. Pushing aside the fact that that the singing of the National Anthem is to honor the brave men and women who have surfaced for our freedoms, not the individuals singing, its shows that there is no room for error in dealing with the LGBT community.
If one opens one’s venue, whether it be a stadium or theater, to a LGBT group and bad luck descends, one is automatically tarred with the hint of discrimination. Bad luck, thus, does not exist in the LGBT world and the knee-jerk response is that someone, somewhere, must have held discriminatory animus for ill-fortune to have occurred. But such thinking is based in fantasy, not fact and the official MLB investigation found the culprit to be human error.
Rather than wait for the investigation, LGBT activists automatically jumped to the conclusion homophobia was the root cause. Hours after the incident, this was the story line being peddled. But now that we know that the mistake was human error, LGBT activists thinks the nation should just ignore its premature tantrum.
We live in a nation where marriage equality is the law of the land, a black female attorney general has defended transgender rights, and Ellen DeGeneres has given Oprah a run for her money. Yes there are outposts of discrimination, but that is all they are – outposts.
When are we to acknowledge the fact that seven decades ago baseball was resisting Jackie Robinson on the basis of color and today we have LGBT nights? When do with sit back and recognize that major-league sports have come a long way in welcoming minorities, including the LGBT community?
Is the welcome perfect? No, but it is on the right track.
But when LGBT activists act like entitled brats just because something went wrong, it does little to advance the call for inclusion. It sends a message that the LGBT community does not want to be an equal; it wants to be a superior immune from the turbulence of life.
By refusing to be gracious and accept apologies without imposing conditions, the chorus, and, by extension LGBT activist, showed the nation that while equality has arrived, maturity has not. The world faces real adversities and a miscue at a ballgame is not one of them.
Joseph R. Murray II, is a conservative commentator, former campaign official for Pat Buchanan, and author of “Odd Man Out.” He is also gay. He can be reached at jrm@joemurrayenterprises.com.