Gay Activists Alliance Zap at the Wt Si YMCA – NYC LGBT Historic S Project

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

“[The YMCA] did have some overlappg of gay cisg.

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

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.

EXPLORE GAY ROOMS & RENTALS NEW YORK

”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.

“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.

GAY ACTIVISTS ALLIANCE ZAP AT THE WT SI YMCA

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.

GAY MOSW · CY GUI

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. ” Gay men occupied 14 of the 16 apartments the buildg.