patrick.net

https://x.com/vancemurphy/status/1876360169568997731#m

Only the ones that haven't died of AIDS yet. The founder of the group took it in the ass from the wrong guy, so he's long gone from AIDS.

Patrick says

Only the ones that haven't died of AIDS yet. The founder of the group took it in the ass from the wrong guy, so he's long gone from AIDS.

The original lead singer is still the lead singer.

Village People front man says ‘YMCA’ isn’t a gay anthem – and he’ll sue anyone who disagrees
He said: “I therefore wrote Y.M.C.A. about the things I knew about the Y in the urban areas of San Francisco such as swimming, basketball, track, and cheap food and cheap rooms. And when I say, ‘hang out with all the boys’ that is simply 1970s black slang for black guys hanging-out together for sports, gambling or whatever. There’s nothing gay about that.
“So, to the extent that Y.M.C.A. is considered a gay anthem based on the fact that gays once used certain YMCA’s for elicit activity, the assumption that the song alludes to that is completely misguided.”

Willis’ feelings on the matter are so strong that he is now threatening legal action over the issue.

He continued: “Since I wrote the lyrics and ought to know what the lyrics I wrote is really about, come January 2025, my wife will start suing each and every news organization that falsely refers to Y.M.C.A., either in their headlines or alluded to in the base of the story, that Y.M.C.A. is somehow a gay anthem because such notion is based solely on the song’s lyrics alluding to elicit activity for which it does not. However, I don’t mind that gays think of the song as their anthem.

EBGuy says

However, I don’t mind that gays think of the song as their anthem.

Therein lies the problem. Most wouldn't read that whole quote. He contradicts himself at the end. Just say it's not gay and move on. No need to be politically correct. Gays are not normal. I'm an exit only guy and that's shit blasting out my ass. Ain't no one sticking a prick in there.

EBGuy says

Village People front man says ‘YMCA’ isn’t a gay anthem

That is completely insane. It's THE gayest song of all time by far. The group may be the gayest band of all time as well, even considering Depeche Mode and Queen.

The group was originally formed by French producers Jacques Morali, Henri Belolo and lead singer Victor Willis[1] following the release of the debut album Village People, which targeted disco's large gay audience. The group's name refers to Manhattan's Greenwich Village, with its reputation as a gay village.[2] The characters were a symbolic group of American masculinity[3] and macho gay-fantasy personas.

The YMCA was and is a notorious pick-up place for gay men.

https://www.intomore.com/culture/the-ymca-was-a-gay-hookup-spot-way-before-the-village-people-song/

YMCA founder George Williams created the recreation center and boarding house as a resource for young men moving to big cities in the wake of the Industrial Revolution. But while Williams—a proponent of an incredibly queer-coded subset of the religion called “Muscular Christianity”—may have wanted to protect young men from sin, he ended up making it deliciously easy to hang out in bathhouses cruising for other hotties with bodies.

As early as the 1880s, the Y started to advertise to young men using homoerotic imagery. The Y’s first phys ed program director even coined the term “bodybuilding”, and used his own well-developed body on ads for the Y.

Pretty gay, right? It gets gayer. As one of the first spaces in the country to house indoor pools, it was common for men to swim naked together. And to room together in the boarding facilities. Just guys having fun and getting fit!

By the 1940s, San Francisco became a new gay hub due to the preponderance of so many Navy men returning from the war. These sailors loved the promise of short-term fun and lodging that the Y offered.

So yeah, by the time the Village People came along, the Y was already quite the hook-up spot.

In my education in New Orleans, YMCA was the cheapest place you could get an air conditioned gym and an indoor jogging track around the top of a basketball court, so I joined.

Nobody ever bothered me, but during Mardi Gras, when going down Bourbon Street with friends, the notorious gay bar at the main intersection had a bunch of the YMCA weight lifting gym guys hanging off the balconies. Guess they were pleased enough with each other not to harass anybody else, but yeah, I heard since YMCA was a gay hangout.