Former Village People member responds to founder denying ‘Y.M.C.A.’ is “gay anthem”

nme.com:

Village People member has responded to the band’s founder denying that ‘Y.M.C.A.’ is a “gay anthem”.Earlier this week (December 3), it was reported that Victor Willis, who is still active in the group as its lead singer, came out on social media to decry the sentiment about the hit 1978 single, which as of late has been a publicly-known favourite of US President-elect Donald Trump.“As I’ve said numerous times in the past, that is a false assumption based on the fact that my writing partner was gay,” he wrote, “and some (not all) of Village People were gay, and that the first Village People album was totally about gay life”.The song was co-written by Willis and the late French producer Jacques Morali, who was gay.

He died in 1991.“The song is not really a gay anthem other than certain people falsely suggesting that it is,” Willis concluded. “And this must stop because it is damaging to the song.”On Friday (December 6), X/Twitter user @peacebisquit shared a screenshot of a Facebook post written by former member David Hodo – who performed in the group as their “construction worker” member from 1978 to 1982, and then 1987 to 2013 – which responds to Willis’ statement, per Stereogum.

Hodo joined the group to replace Mark Mussler, who later died in 1987.“Just to be clear, there would be no YMCA song without Jacques Morali,” wrote Hodo.