Village People singer denies ‘YMCA’ is a ‘gay anthem’

Village People’s “YMCA” has been Donald Trump’s most popular theme song in recent years, to the point that the president-elect even has his own choreographed dance to it. In a new Facebook post, Village People founding member and songwriter Victor Willis defended Trump’s use of the song while firmly denying any gay connotations you might associate with the anthem over the years.

Willis said he initially asked Trump to stop playing “YMCA” at his events because the complaints he was receiving from fans had become “an annoyance to me.” However, “the Trump campaign knew that they had received a political use license from BMI, and unless that license was terminated, they had every right to continue using ‘YMCA.’ And that’s what they did.”

Plus, Willis explained, “Trump seems to really like ‘YMCA’ and he’s having a lot of fun with it,” and “I just didn’t have the heart to stop him from continuing to use my song with so many artists on his record.” to withdraw use of their material. That’s why I told my wife to inform BMI not to revoke the license for political use in the Trump campaign.”

Willis also acknowledged the financial benefit, noting that he stands to make “several million dollars” from Trump’s continued use of the song.

As for the idea that YMCA is “somehow a gay anthem,” Willis said that “that is a false assumption based on the fact that my writing partner was gay and some (not all) of the villagers were gay.” and that the first one. “The Village People album was all about gay life.”

Willis continued:

“This assumption is also based on the fact that the YMCA was apparently used as a kind of gay meeting place and since one of the writers was gay and some of the Village People are gay, the song must be a message to gay people.” I say that again : Get your mind out of the gutter. That’s not it.

Unfortunately, when the President-elect started using the song, people trying to brand the song as a gay anthem reached a fever pitch, with many saying, “Oh, Trump doesn’t know that song is a gay anthem?” This was done with the intent of shaming the president-elect’s use of the song.

As I’ve said many times, I didn’t know that the Y was a gay meeting place when I wrote the lyrics for YMCA, and Jacques Morali (who was gay) never once told me that. In fact, Jacques never told me how to write my lyrics, otherwise I would have said to him: You don’t need me, why don’t you just write the lyrics?

So I wrote “YMCA” about the things I knew about the Y in urban areas of San Francisco, like swimming, basketball, track and field, and cheap food and cheap rooms. And when I say, “hanging out with all the boys,” that’s just 1970s black slang for black men spending time together playing sports, gambling, or whatever. There’s nothing gay about that.

So to the extent that “YMCA” is considered a gay anthem due to the fact that gays once used certain YMCAs to generate activity, the assumption that the song alludes to this is entirely false.

So, since I wrote the texts and should know what the texts I wrote were really about, starting in January 2025, my wife will begin suing every single news organization that falsely refers to “YMCA.” it in their headlines or in allusions to it The basis of the story is that “YMCA” is in some ways a gay anthem, as this idea is based entirely on the song’s lyrics, which allude to evoking activity for which, however is not the case. However, it doesn’t bother me that gays consider the song their anthem.

But you’d be hard-pressed to find “YMCA” on the playlist of a gay club, parade, or other gay activity in a way that suggests it’s somehow an anthem to the community, other than a reference to illegal activities, which is defamatory, and harmful to the song. But it stops in 2025.

However, do you know where to find “YMCA”? The song is on the playlist of almost every wedding, bar mitzvah and sports organization and is used in commercials, movies and products worldwide.

The real anthem is “YMCA’s appeal to people of all stripes, including President-elect Trump.” But the song isn’t really a gay anthem, except that some people falsely claim it is. And that has to stop because it’s damaging the song.”