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

Contents:

• ABOUT THE CENTERSCE 1983 THE CENTER HAS BEEN SUPPORTG, FOSTERG AND CELEBRATG THE LGBT MUNY OF NEW YORK CY. FD MORE RMATN ON AND OUR WORK ABOUT THE CENTER. VIS ABOUT THE CENTEROUR MISSNCYBER CENTERCENTER HISTORYRACE EQUYMEDIA CENTERLEARSHIP & STAFFEMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNICORPORATE PARTNERSHIPSANNUAL REPORTS & FANCIAL INFORMATNCONTACT USHOURS & LOTNSEMAPSUPPORT THE CENTER
• THE REAL STORY OF THE YMCA THAT INSPIRED THE VILLAGE PEOPLE'S GAY ANTHEM
• MOVG THROUGH NEW YORK’S EARLY 20TH-CENTURY GAY SPAC
• EXPLORE GAY ROOMS & RENTALS NEW YORK
• GAY ACTIVISTS ALLIANCE ZAP AT THE WT SI YMCA
• GAY MOSW · CY GUI

ABOUT THE CENTERSCE 1983 THE CENTER HAS BEEN SUPPORTG, FOSTERG AND CELEBRATG THE LGBT MUNY OF NEW YORK CY. FD MORE RMATN ON AND OUR WORK ABOUT THE CENTER. VIS ABOUT THE CENTEROUR MISSNCYBER CENTERCENTER HISTORYRACE EQUYMEDIA CENTERLEARSHIP & STAFFEMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNICORPORATE PARTNERSHIPSANNUAL REPORTS & FANCIAL INFORMATNCONTACT USHOURS & LOTNSEMAPSUPPORT THE CENTER

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. 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.

“[The YMCA] did have some overlappg of gay cisg. Garrett adds unrgraduate stunts and disabled men to the mix of ethnilly and racially diverse renters, about half of whom he timat were gay. Often gay and their 20s or 30s, the weekend guts ed the YMCA “as a drsg room, ” and as a place to discreetly hook up, Garrett says.

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. There’s nothg gay about them.

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

”Jon, who was a Y member at the time, sists to Gothamist that the band's artistic tent wasn’t to produce a gay anthem.

MOVG THROUGH NEW YORK’S EARLY 20TH-CENTURY GAY SPAC

“But if you happen to be a gay man and have the experience and perspective of hookg up wh each other, ’s another way n be perceived. Most of those iends were gay, and the gay world was a signifint part of what they showed him.

Gee, seemed to him, was “almost entirely gay, ” and the iends he met there troduced him to yet other parts of the gay world.

He moved there at the vatn of a iend he had met at Red’s, a popular bar on Third Avenue at 50th street that had attracted gay men sce s days as a speakeasy the 1920s. An elrly uple had occupied for years, and, sce the walls were rather th, the iend had never stopped worryg that they heard him late at night wh gay iends and had grown spic of the pany he kept. The buildg’s narrow railroad flats, if not luxur, were aquate and cheap; the lotn, near the gay bar circu on Third Avenue the East 50s, was nvenient; and most important, the other habants were iendly and supportive.

EXPLORE GAY ROOMS & RENTALS NEW YORK

” Gay men occupied 14 of the 16 apartments the buildg. This was not the only predomantly gay apartment buildg Willy remembered.

In the 1950s a major apartment hoe at Number 405 a street the East 50s was so heavily gay that gay men nicknamed the “Four out of Five. Willy not only lived a gay hoe, but a growg gay neighborhood enclave, whose streets provid him wh regular ntact wh other gay men. Although Willy’s succs creatg an almost pletely gay apartment buildg was unual, his termatn to fd hog that maximized his tonomy and his accs to the gay world was not.

In his movement om one dwellg to the next, Willy traced a path followed by many gay men the first half of the century as they built a gay world the cy’s hotels, roomg ho, and apartment buildgs, and s feterias, rtrants, and speakeasi. Gay men took full advantage of the cy’s rourc to create zon of gay mararie and secury.

GAY ACTIVISTS ALLIANCE ZAP AT THE WT SI YMCA

Although livg wh one’s fay, even a crowd tenement, did not prevent a man om participatg the gay world that was takg shape the cy’s streets, many gay men, like Willy, sought to secure hog that would maximize their eedom om supervisn.

GAY MOSW · CY GUI

No cens data exist that uld firmly tablish the rintial patterns of gay men, but two studi of gay men rcerated the New York Cy Jail, nducted 1938 and 1940, are suggtive. Some landladi doubtls tolerated known homosexual lodgers for the same enomic reasons they tolerated lodgers who engaged heterosexual affairs, and others simply did not re.

Such hog had quali that ma particularly eful to gay men as well as to transient workers of var sorts. Some landladi doubtls tolerated known homosexual lodgers for the same enomic reasons they tolerated lodgers who engaged heterosexual affairs, and others simply did not re about their tenants’ homosexual affairs.

The boundari of acceptable behavr were, as a rult, often unclear, and many ho men felt nstraed to try to nceal the gay aspects of their liv. The story of one black gay man who lived the basement of a roomg hoe on Wt 50th Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenu, 1919 suggts the latu—and limatns—of roomg-hoe life. In general, though, the same lack of supervisn the roomg ho that so ncerned moral reformers ma the ho particularly attractive to gay men, who were able to e their landladi’ and fellow tenants’ prumptn that they were straight orr to disguise their liaisons wh men.