If the media publicly refers to the YMCA hit song as a “gay anthem,” they could be threatened with legal action by the singer.
Singer and co-writer of the iconic disco song Victor Willis of the Village People went to Facebook on December 2 to clarify his intentions for the song.
In a lengthy post defending President-elect Donald Trump’s use of the song, Willis notes that there is “nothing gay” about the song.
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“There’s been a lot of talk, especially lately, that YMCA is somehow a gay anthem. As I have said many times in the past, this is a false assumption,” Willis wrote.
Willis, who portrayed the baton-wielding cop in the group, revealed all the reasons behind the “false assumption.”
These include the fact that it was co-written by the late Jacques Morali, an openly gay artist, and that the self-titled debut album is – as Willis put it – “all about gay life”.
Willis also noted that the “suggestion” stemmed from the song’s association with the YMCA’s reputation as a gay venue.
“To that I say once again, get your minds out of the gutter. It is not,” he wrote.
Willis went one step further in his quest to remove the YMCA from the gay anthem canon of the LGBTQI+ community. Starting in January, his wife and manager Karen Willis will take legal action against any news organization that calls the song a gay anthem.
“Such (a) notion is based solely on the lyrics of the song implying illegal activity, which it is not. However, I don’t mind gay people considering the song as their anthem,” Willis added.
Speaking of BillboardKaren Willis said: “Victor has a right not to have his lyrics twisted beyond the true meaning of his words, especially in a way that would embarrass or disparage him. This is especially true when he can show that the media was notified to remove it. Stop it.”
Unfortunately for Willis, a US legal expert said such lawsuits would likely be “non-starters”.
“Calling the ‘YMCA’ a gay anthem is an opinion,” said Dori Hanswirth of the US law firm Arnold & Porter. “To the extent that the reference is considered a statement of fact rather than opinion, it is probably true. And truth is a complete defense against any claim of defamation.
Willis’s desire for control over the narrative of the song in the community raises questions about the role of audience perception in determining the cultural meaning of the song. The song’s journey from disco hit to cultural phenomenon demonstrates how audience perception can shape a work’s significance over time.
Despite Willis’ protests, the YMCA became deeply ingrained in popular culture and LGBTQ+ pride. Since its launch in 1978. the song and its iconic alphabet dance are celebrated for their queer undertones at a time when so much of queer culture was suppressed.
Nonetheless, Trump’s use of the song breathed new life into both the YMCA’s legacy and the group’s bank accounts. Willis noted in his Facebook post that “the financial benefits have been great” and that “the YMCA is worth several million dollars since the president-elect continues to use the song.”
Read Victor Willis’ full post below:
WHY I AUTHORIZED THE CONTINUED USE OF PRESIDENT-ELECT TRUMP
OF THE YMCA AND WHY THE SONG IS NOT REALLY A GAY ANTHEM
To Village People fans and media:
I am the singer and lyricist of the hit song YMCA. In fact, as it was awarded and ruled in US District Court, I wrote 100% of the lyrics and my writing partner, Jacques Morali, wrote the music.
From 2020 since then I have received over a thousand complaints about President-elect Trump’s use of the YMCA. With so many complaints, I decided to ask the president-elect to stop using the YMCA because using it has become an inconvenience to me.
However, the use continued because the Trump campaign knew they had obtained a political use license from BMI and if that license was not terminated, they had every right to continue using the YMCA AND they did.
In fact, I’ve started to notice a lot of artists withdrawing the president-elect’s use of their material. But at the time I said to my wife one day, hey, “Trump” seems to really like the YMCA and he’s having a lot of fun with it.
As such, I simply did not have the heart to prevent his continued use of my song in the face of so many artists withdrawing the use of their material. So I told my wife to inform BMI not to revoke the Trump campaign’s political use license. My French partners were considering legal action outside of France. So I had my wife contact our French partners and ask them to stay away from the use of the YMCA by the Trump campaign because it is a US matter and I will make the decision about its use. Our French partners quickly dropped their objections to its use.
The YMCA has benefited greatly from being used by the president-elect. For example, the YMCA was stuck at #2 on the Billboard charts prior to the use of the president-elect. However, the song finally reached #1 on the Billboard chart after more than 45 years (and stayed at #1 for two weeks) due to the use of the president-elect.
The financial benefits have been great, with the YMCA estimated to have made several million dollars since the president-elect continued to use the song. So I’m glad I let the president-elect continue to use the YMCA and thank him for choosing to use my song.
There’s been a lot of talk, especially lately, that YMCA is somehow a gay anthem. As I have said many times in the past, this is a false assumption based on the fact that my writing partner was gay and some (not all) of the Village People were gay and that the first Village People album was all about gay life.
This assumption is also based on the fact that the YMCA was apparently used as some sort of gay hangout, 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. To this I say again, get your minds out of the gutter. It isn’t.
Unfortunately, when the president-elect started using the song, people trying to brand the song as a gay anthem hit a fever pitch, as many used it to say, oh, doesn’t Trump know the song is a gay anthem? This was done in an attempt to embarrass the president-elect’s use of the song.
As I have stated many times, I knew nothing about the Y being a gay place when I wrote the YMCA lyrics, and Jacques Morali (who was gay) never once told me so. In fact, Jacques never once told me how to write my lyrics, otherwise I would have told him, you don’t need me, why don’t you just write the lyrics.
So I wrote the YMCA about the things I knew about the Y in the urban areas of San Francisco like swimming, basketball, track, and cheap food and cheap rooms. And when I say “hang out with all the guys” that’s just black 1970s slang for black guys hanging out together for sports or gambling or whatever. There’s nothing gay about that.
So, to the extent that the YMCA is considered a gay anthem based on the fact that gays once used certain YMCAs for illegal activity, the assumption that the song is alluding to that is completely wrong.
Therefore, since I wrote the articles and I need to know what the articles I wrote are really about, in January 2025 my wife will start suing any news organization that falsely refers to the YMCA, either in their headlines or it’s basically implied by the story that YMCA is somehow a gay anthem because that notion is based solely on the song’s lyrics hinting at evoking an activity that it isn’t. But I don’t mind gays considering the song as their anthem.
But you’d be hard-pressed to find the YMCA playing any gay club, parade, or other gay event in a way that suggests it’s a community anthem, other than implying an illegal activity that’s defamatory and harmful to the song. But it stops in 2025.
But do you know where to find a YMCA? Playlisted at almost every wedding, bar mitzvah, sporting event, and the song is used in commercials and movies and products around the world.
The real anthem is the YMCA’s appeal to people of all stripes, including President-elect Trump. But the song isn’t really a gay anthem, except for some people who falsely assume it is. And that has to stop because it hurts the song.
