When you think classic gay music, the songs of the Village People likely come to mind. With suggestive hits like “Macho Man” and “In The Navy” and an album called Cruisin’, the group seems as queer as a mainstream music act could be in the ‘70s — but a controversial new post from the group’s songwriter and frontman says that not only was their biggest hit never meant to be a gay song, Donald Trump’s love for (and political use of) the track is a-okay by him.

In a Facebook post on December 2, founding Village People member Victor Willis shared that the song “Y.M.C.A.” is, in his words, “not really a gay anthem.” Willis explained that he wrote “100% of the lyrics” to “Y.M.C.A.,” while his writing partner Jacques Morali, an openly gay man, wrote the music.

“There’s been a lot of talk, especially of late, that Y.M.C.A. is somehow a gay anthem,” Wills wrote. “As I’ve said numerous times in the past, that is a false assumption based on the fact that my writing partner was gay, and some (not all) of Village People were gay, and that the first Village People album was totally about gay life.”

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To anyone who thinks the song is about gay cruising — a common assumption, given the song’s lyrical content and its long-held associations with gay culture — Willis simply says, “get your minds out of the gutter. It is not.”

How does Donald Trump factor into all this? The president-elect has been using “Y.M.C.A.” at his rallies for years now, leading folks to complain to Willis and imploring him to ask Trump to stop using the song. Willis wrote that he initially obliged, but after seeing that Trump “seems to genuinely like Y.M.C.A. and he’s having a lot of fun with it,” he decided to stand down and let Trump use the song freely.

That choice resulted in higher chart performance and more money generated from the song, Willis noted. “Therefore, I’m glad I allowed the President Elect’s continued use of Y.M.C.A. And I thank him for choosing to use my song,” he wrote.

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Willis also said that he and his wife plan to take legal action against any news outlets that refer to the song as a gay anthem starting in 2025.

“I don’t mind that gays think of the song as their anthem,” Willis added. “But you’d be hard-pressed to find Y.M.C.A. on the play list at any gay club, parade or other gay activity in a way that would suggest it’s somehow an anthem to the community other than alluding to illicit activity, which is defamatory, and damaging to the song. But it stops in 2025.”

Why would “Y.M.C.A.” being a gay anthem be “defamatory” and “damaging to the song” as Willis claims? It’s hard to imagine a reason that isn’t rooted in homophobia — but given that Willis is the song’s sole living writer (with Morali having passed away from AIDS-related complications in 1991), we’ll respect his wishes: “Y.M.C.A.” is merely an alleged gay anthem.

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