The Village People's Randy Jon Speaks On Gay Marriage

Contents:

• THE GAY ECSTASY OF THE VILLAGE PEOPLE
• CHIGO STYLELGBTQ+HOME»EXPLORE»CHIGO STYLE»LGBTQ+CHIGO HAS A WAY OF MAKG EVERYONE FEEL WELE. OUR LGBTQ+ MUNI, IENDLY RINTS, DIVERSE NIGHTLIFE, AND YEAR-LONG PRI CELEBRATNS MAKE ONE OF THE MOST CLIVE CI THE UNTRY. VAR PRELOAD = {}; GET TO KNOW LGBTQ+ CHIGOCOME EXPLORE OUR HISTORIC LANDMARKS, WELG NEIGHBORHOODS, AND THRIVG NIGHTLIFE SCENE.EXPLORE CHIGO'S WELG NEIGHBORHOODSCHECK OUT OUR GUI TO LGBTQ+ NEIGHBORHOODSEXPLORE OUR 2-DAY LGBTQ+ CHIGO ERARYDISVER LGBTQ+ HISTORY WH THE TOURS AND ATTRACTNSFEEL THE PRIPRI IS CHIGO'S DNA. AND WE CELEBRATE ALL YEAR LONG.CATCH THE CHIGO PRI PARA JUNEWHERE TO CELEBRATE PRI MONTH CHIGOEXPLORE YEAR-ROUND LGBTQ+ EVENTS CHIGOKEEP THE PARTY GOG AT THE LOL GAY BARS AND CLUBS.EXPLORE WELG NEIGHBORHOODSEXPERIENCE CHIGO'S VIBRANT LGBTQ+ MUNI, CLUDG THE FIRST OFFICIAL GAY NEIGHBORHOOD THE UNTRY.PARTY AT SITRACK BOYSTOWNWHAT DO AND SEE BUZZG BOYSTOWNEAT AND SHOP QUIRKY ANRSONVILLEKEEP EXPLORG
• A GAY IN REMEMBERS LIFE THE VILLAGE, AND THE VILLAGE PEOPLE
• GAYT PLAC IN ILLOIS FOR 2020
• WE ARE NOT A GAY ACT, VILLAGE PEOPLE SAY (WH A STRAIGHT FACE)
• THE VILLAGE PEOPLE’S RANDY JON SPEAKS ON GAY MARRIAGE
• VILLAGE PEOPLE GIV TMP OK TO PLAY GAY ANTHEMS 'YMCA,' 'MACHO MAN' AT RALLI

THE GAY ECSTASY OF THE VILLAGE PEOPLE

However, be this memory real or simulacm, strik me as hilar given what the Village People are universally known for: tongue--cheek gay nuendo, sparsely vered by a flimsy veneer of hyper-macho drag.

However the service’s tomatic n-on feature clearly disagreed and cid that, when Cowley’s sensual, gay bathhoe-ready rhythms end, ‘Macho Man’ would be a great follow-up. And I was fascated by the empowerment I felt om Village People, the tle track on their eponymo but album, and an unambiguo ll for gay liberatn that sounds more ak to a prott chant than a chart topper. Said first three albums (and pecially the first two) rry a surprisgly polil energy; the more popular tracks, such as the eponymo Macho Man, might be vacuo but others – take I Am What I Am, a fiant chant that suggts exactly what you’d expect to suggt – envisn a world which male bodi uld be ee to e together whout Francis was one of the gay mecs the Village People celebrated on their visnary but album (Cred: Alamy)As far as evokg same-sex love go, there was a precent – om dis’s genis, queered sexual posivy was the life blood of the genre, as Peter Shapiro intifi Turn the Beat Around: The Secret History of Dis.

“As the cultural adjunct of the gay pri movement, dis was the embodiment of the pleasure-is-polics ethos of a new generatn of gay culture, a generatn fed up wh police raids, dranian laws and the darkns of the closet, ” he wr.

CHIGO STYLELGBTQ+HOME»EXPLORE»CHIGO STYLE»LGBTQ+CHIGO HAS A WAY OF MAKG EVERYONE FEEL WELE. OUR LGBTQ+ MUNI, IENDLY RINTS, DIVERSE NIGHTLIFE, AND YEAR-LONG PRI CELEBRATNS MAKE ONE OF THE MOST CLIVE CI THE UNTRY. VAR PRELOAD = {}; GET TO KNOW LGBTQ+ CHIGOCOME EXPLORE OUR HISTORIC LANDMARKS, WELG NEIGHBORHOODS, AND THRIVG NIGHTLIFE SCENE.EXPLORE CHIGO'S WELG NEIGHBORHOODSCHECK OUT OUR GUI TO LGBTQ+ NEIGHBORHOODSEXPLORE OUR 2-DAY LGBTQ+ CHIGO ERARYDISVER LGBTQ+ HISTORY WH THE TOURS AND ATTRACTNSFEEL THE PRIPRI IS CHIGO'S DNA. AND WE CELEBRATE ALL YEAR LONG.CATCH THE CHIGO PRI PARA JUNEWHERE TO CELEBRATE PRI MONTH CHIGOEXPLORE YEAR-ROUND LGBTQ+ EVENTS CHIGOKEEP THE PARTY GOG AT THE LOL GAY BARS AND CLUBS.EXPLORE WELG NEIGHBORHOODSEXPERIENCE CHIGO'S VIBRANT LGBTQ+ MUNI, CLUDG THE FIRST OFFICIAL GAY NEIGHBORHOOD THE UNTRY.PARTY AT SITRACK BOYSTOWNWHAT DO AND SEE BUZZG BOYSTOWNEAT AND SHOP QUIRKY ANRSONVILLEKEEP EXPLORG

That said, the genre’s lyrics tend to chew more overt polil statements – and the few that did rry an unambiguo msage of gay liberatn didn’t chart well.

A GAY IN REMEMBERS LIFE THE VILLAGE, AND THE VILLAGE PEOPLE

– Jacqu MoraliIn her dis chronicle Hot Stuff: Dis and the Remakg of Amerin Culture, Alice Echols rells a 1978 Rollg Stone article which Jacqu Morali – the French producer who, alongsi Henri Bolelo and eventual group lear Victor Willis, created the Village People – put forward a manifto of gay visibily: “Morali outed himself, and emphasised that as a homosexual he was mted to endg the cultural visibily of gay men. The album is prised of paeans to the Uned Stat’ gay unrbelly, focg on four plac: San Francis, Hollywood, Fire Island and Greenwich Village.

GAYT PLAC IN ILLOIS FOR 2020

The batn of lol alone should immediately tip you off as to who Village People was beg sold to, as any gay man the late 70s would regnise this as a lndry list of US gay mecs.

It knowgly evok the sex-as-polics attu of gay liberatn (“Love the way I please / don’t put no chas on me”), and Victor Willis’ cry of “leather, leather, leather baby” speaks to the era’s emergent gay macho archetype. The song also evok the great gay urban migratn of the 1970s, durg which gays and lbians across the US moved to urban centr – San Francis, Los Angel, New York Cy – en masse.

This theme is seamlsly rried over to In Hollywood (Everybody is a Star), which envisns Hollywood as a rtoonish hub of opulence, universal succs and stardom – an aspiratnal portra for a historilly margalised their reer went on, the Village People creasgly urted the mastream, cludg wh 1980 film Can’t Stop the Mic (Cred: Alamy)For somethg unabashedly homosexual you need only turn to Fire Island, named after the most inic gay hotspot the world, a th strip of land some 50 off the ast of New York Cy, revered for s hookup spots and iastic danc. And then we e to the tular track Village People, the most emphatilly polil of them all; a percsive chant that lls upon the ‘Village people’, th for gay men, to “take our place the Sun”: “To be ee, ” Village People clare, “We mt be / all for one.

WE ARE NOT A GAY ACT, VILLAGE PEOPLE SAY (WH A STRAIGHT FACE)

Empowerg and queer-foced as their early lyrics may have been, the msage quickly shifted once mastream succs was urted and emed to be more profable than their ial target group of gay dis-goers. But for a gay man, is impossible, too, not to have a visceral rponse to Village People and s – somewhat superficial but credibly energisg – ll for gay liberatn, such unambiguo terms.

Certaly, if the tune mak me ecstatic, I n’t beg to thk of what would be like for a guy 1979, newly disverg his gayns and hearg for the first time a pulsatg New York nightclub. And we celebrate all year the Chigo Pri Para JuneExplore welg neighborhoodsExperience Chigo's vibrant LGBTQ+ muni, cludg the first official gay neighborhood the at Sitrack BoystownKeep explorgDisver more Chigo LGBTQ+ gems, om historic landmarks to ol boutiqu to top drag shows.

THE VILLAGE PEOPLE’S RANDY JON SPEAKS ON GAY MARRIAGE

”‘Ltle cisn over the hearts’And while Greenwich Village had the reputatn as a gay neighborhood, and the group ially targeted gay club equenters for s dience, the Village People — whose lp clud several gay members, cludg Jon — found near-universal lled the band’s legacy, far beyond “Y. That fay watchg The Village People on Merv Griff got a glimpse of gay performers they might have shunned out of reflexive prejudice if they weren’t so danged tchy, and they maybe found a ltle humany by accint.

“I thk people said, ‘Well, (shoot), I like YMCA, and maybe all gay people aren’t as bad as I thought, ” said Jon, who married his longtime boyiend Will Grega 2004.

VILLAGE PEOPLE GIV TMP OK TO PLAY GAY ANTHEMS 'YMCA,' 'MACHO MAN' AT RALLI

” Randy Jon, the origal wboy the pop dis group The Village People, pos for pictur ont of anti-gay preachers on Ma Street Durham 2013. The year I was born (1986) only 30% of the US populatn thought LGBTQ relatnships should be legal, wh support for state-sanctned gay marriage enjoyg support the sgle digs (pollg rmatn on that qutn don't even go back that far bee was so far-fetched at the time that they didn't even poll on ). The Village People are part of New York Cy history, formed by nizens of the Big Apple's thrivg, unrground gay club scene of the 1970s.