The Real Story Of The YMCA That Inspired The Village People's Gay Anthem - Gothamist

Contents:

• LTLE BRA’S MATT LUS SAYS ‘ONLY GAY THE VILLAGE’ WAS MEANT TO BE A ‘CELEBRATN’ OF GAY PEOPLE
• THIS IS WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE GAY THE COUNTRYSI
• THE BT GAY BARS THE WT VILLAGE
• GAY UPL AT HOME THE VILLAG
• THE ONLY GAY THE VILLAGE? EVERYDAY LIFE OF GAYS AND LBIANS RAL SLOVENIA
• THE GAY ECSTASY OF THE VILLAGE PEOPLE
• THE REAL STORY OF THE YMCA THAT INSPIRED THE VILLAGE PEOPLE'S GAY ANTHEM
• GAY VILLAGE
• LAKE BLUFF NSIRS FLYG GAY PRI FLAG ON VILLAGE FLAGPOLE; ‘WE N SEND THE RIGHT MSAGE, THAT WE ARE AN ACCEPTG ... MUNY’
• GREENWICH VILLAGE, STORIED HOME OF BOHEMIA AND GAY HISTORY
• TORONTO GAY DISTRICT: THE VILLAGE

LTLE BRA’S MATT LUS SAYS ‘ONLY GAY THE VILLAGE’ WAS MEANT TO BE A ‘CELEBRATN’ OF GAY PEOPLE

Matt says the character was meant to be a ‘celebratn’ of gay people (Picture: Rex Featur, BBC)Comedian and actor Matt Lus has spoken out about his ntroversial Ltle Bra character Dafydd Thomas, better known as ‘the only gay the village’. The character is emed offensive by many (Picture: BBC)‘I remember thkg there was a greeds to Ltle Bra and we jt wanted to show off as many characters as possible so we played black, whe, straight, gay, male, female, tall, short, whatever, ’ the 45-year-old told the podst. A longtime hangout for lbians and their iends, the Cubbyhole is one of the few lbian bars a neighborhood where the morn gay rights movement got natnal attentn after a police raid at the nearby Stonewall Inn on June 28, 1969.

Today she walks past the “Gay Liberatn” (1980) statu by sculptor Gee Segal Christopher Park, protected 2016 along wh the Stonewall Inn as a Natnal Park Service se, by then-Print Barack Obama. This is where she would get a drk at the Cubbyhole or dance until dawn at Garbo’s lbian bar or Cnamon Productns monthly danc for women of lor at Octagon (a gay men’s club), followed by chicken and waffl at the Pk Tea Cup, a soul food rtrant. And she’ll still head to the Cubbyhole or Henrietta Hudson for a drk, a spot that charg ls than the typil New York pric for s drks, where baby dyk and veterans of the gay civil rights movement hang out, listen to tun om the jebox and talk about the tensn between progrs and rememberg where you me om.

As they gather at the Cubbyhole, Grant and her iends hope that other lbians, gay men, bisexual and transgenr people – both whe and people of lor – will remember the battl long and hard fought. This was the 50s, when homosexualy was still illegal; when love had to be hidn behd the sexls screen of a sham marriage and the shame of your heart's sire end up tied around your throat like a, you may thk, has changed.

THIS IS WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE GAY THE COUNTRYSI

While shows like Cucumber celebrate the world of urban gay culture (although 's taken long enough for a gay televisn program to e along aga), the liv of young LGBT farmers, herdsman, gamekeepers, and shop owners seem as silent as a stillborn lamb.

"I grew up a ltle village Shropshire on the si of a hill, surround by fields, wh no street lights or tarmac, " says Josh, a young gay man I spoke to via email.

"There's this belief that big smopolan ci have the least prejudice to race and sexualy, " says a young gay mother who recently moved back to the Cumbrian village where she was raised. When we were livg Newstle and workg for the ernment we enuntered a lot more homophobia, pecially when my wife stggled to get paterny leave for the birth of our first child. Wily known as a cril votg bloc for right-wg ndidat, is also, ls nspicuoly, home to a thrivg gay Rabow club has no head unt — years of discrimatn have ma the gay muny leery of lists — but emails reach close to 2, leads to creasgly crlo qutns:1.

THE BT GAY BARS THE WT VILLAGE

''It was the ncept of never havg to leave the neighborhood — the Villag has more than 100 rtrants, 45 golf urs, partment stor and almost every other necsy — that attracted Garv and O'Donnell om San Diego a social clubs for every nceivable persuasn already the Villag, the ia of gettg gay rints together seemed a is, until O'Donnell and Garv first tried 10 years ago. While gay rints threw a prott-ee celebratn a town square after the recent Supreme Court cisn legalizg same-sex marriag, there were a number of hate-filled ments on lol msage boards Joseph Flynn, the Villag Democratic Club director, says those who sport liberal bumper stickers still n the risk of beg Flynn and Rabow members say the image of the Villag beg overn by the tea party is exaggerated and outdated.

GAY UPL AT HOME THE VILLAG

The characteristics of gay and lbian everyday life eher ral or urban ntext Slovenia lead to the ncln that even wh a specific social and cultural ntext, the ncept of urban/ral divi should be ed refully, takg to acunt plexi of everyday liv and var factors that fluence them.

Montréal is home to one of the largt LGBTQ+ Villag North Ameri and the famed gaybourhood’s kilometre-long pestrian mall on Sate-Cathere Street East prents ee outdoor ncerts on five stag all summer long. From when a gay ary dmmer statned wh the French garrison was sentenced to ath 1648 to the Sex Garage rebelln of 1990 – wily nsired to be Montréal’s Stonewall – Montrealers fought hard for their cy to bee the queer mec is today. 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.

THE ONLY GAY THE VILLAGE? EVERYDAY LIFE OF GAYS AND LBIANS RAL SLOVENIA

“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. – 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 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.

THE GAY ECSTASY OF THE VILLAGE PEOPLE

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.

THE REAL STORY OF THE YMCA THAT INSPIRED THE VILLAGE PEOPLE'S GAY ANTHEM

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.

GAY VILLAGE

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. In the pre-Stonewall years, amidst an atmosphere of fear and reprsn, gay bars and other social gatherg spac were ccial creatg a sense of muny and brewg polil agatn. Gay rights activist Craig Rodwell tablished the East Coast’s first gay and lbian bookstore (and the first one the natn to operate long term), named memory of Osr...

On April 21, 1966, a “Sip-In” was anized by members of the Mattache Society, one of the untry’s earlit gay rights anizatns, to challenge the State Liquor Authory’s discrimatory policy... In the 40 years sce the Village People released “YMCA, ” the song has bee a cultural touchstone: a gay anthem famo for s nuendos and double entendr about young, f men “havg a good time, ” as well as a staple at Yanke gam and bar song has also immortalized the Young Men's Christian Associatn pop culture.

LAKE BLUFF NSIRS FLYG GAY PRI FLAG ON VILLAGE FLAGPOLE; ‘WE N SEND THE RIGHT MSAGE, THAT WE ARE AN ACCEPTG ... MUNY’

Yet former rints of the McBurney Y Chelsea — the buildg that spired the song, and which was featured the vio released late 1978 — say the realy of stays at the YMCA those days was more plited than the lyrics portray, wh gay culture and workg-class workouts existg a sgle munal space. “There was certaly a party aspect to their vio and that time was the height of all the gay clubs Chelsea, ” rells Davidson Garrett, who lived at the McBurney Y om 1978 through 2000. Meanwhile, hoekeepers me not jt to offer towels and change your sheets, but to keep an eye on you, Kangappadan of the song’s charm, of urse, is s petg terpretatns: It n be read equally well as a celebratn of gay culture or of the workg man.

And as a Sp oral history revealed on the song's 30th anniversary ten years ago, even the group self didn't agree on the proper Hodo (“the nstctn worker”) sisted to Sp that Jacqu Morali, the French producer who helped create the group and -wrote the song wh lead sger Victor Willis (“the p”), certaly had the gay muny md when he me up wh the song.

Cathere East and s si streets, home to Montreal's gay and lbian ways to experience nearby attractnsThe area Neighborhood: Ville-MarieBedry • 4 m walkPape • 7 m walkSee what travelers are saygRabows everywhereThe entrance at the bottom of Place Eie Gamel to the Gay Village is ftooned wh overhead rabow lors as far as the eye n see down this road (St Cathere's St East. It seems that Montreal's Gay Village will share the same fate as other ci North Ameri, where they have ma Masculy out of style thereby removg the generatg force that fueled this once vibrant and edgy place to be.

GREENWICH VILLAGE, STORIED HOME OF BOHEMIA AND GAY HISTORY

Where style and sign were ont & centre, sought out and pied by the outsi world, who me and walked the welg, lovg and non judgg embrace the gay is no longer the se. Read our transparency report to learn RJersey Cy, NJ51 ntributnsAug 2022 • CouplPretty borg gay village that's also que dirty and chaotic, filled wh aggrsive panhandlg. The Lake Bluff Village Board is nsirg raisg a gay pri flag on a village flagpole, but tste are lookg for addnal rmatn before takg formal members discsed the ia at a July 10 Commtee of the Whole meetg, rumg a nversatn that began at a June ssn after two rints ntacted village officials supportg the ia of raisg a pri flag, acrdg to village documents.

TORONTO GAY DISTRICT: THE VILLAGE

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTStreetspIn the Village, Another Piece of the Cy’s History Is Comg DownLike other vulnerable landmarks across the cy, the hoe at 14 Gay Street — which helped spire the mil “Wonrful Town” — is beg 1937, when this photograph was taken, 14 Gay Street and s siblg 16 Gay Street were already more than 100 years old.

Today, there are only a few such ho left Greenwich Village — built the early 19th century for the merntile class, rather than the Abbott, via The New York Public LibraryOne Monday late November, prervatnists, policians, neighbors and looky-loos gathered at dk on Manhattan’s ty Gay Street, a slim crcent the heart of Greenwich Village, to prott the moln of a nearly 200-year-old hoe there. The place qutn, 14 Gay Street, is one of a clutch of six wsome but prer early 19th-century buildgs on Gay and Christopher Streets that were owned for s by Celte Mart, a sgular character voted to her properti and to the often eccentric st of tenants she Mart died late 2018, at 94, wh no will and no close relativ, so the cy took over her holdgs, sellg 14 Gay Street and s siblgs for about $9 ln to a buyer who flipped them last April to Lnel Nazarian, a 37-year-old veloper, for about $12 ln.