Trump Walks Offstage To ‘YMCA,’ So Here’s The Meaning Behind The Song

President Donald J. Trump concluded an appearance at the Republican National Convention's roll call on Monday by walking offstage to the song “YMCA” by the Village People. Some people found the choice particularly odd given that it’s often considered a gay anthem.

The meaning behind the song “YMCA,” first released in 1978, is pretty hotly debated, even among the Village People themselves. Many listeners believe it’s about gay men cruising (searching for a sexual partner, typically in a casual way), especially since “YMCA” appears on an album titled “Cruisin.”

Since the YMCA was cheap to stay at, it was a place that attracted many working-class gay men, especially since it was near Greenwich Village, the center of New York’s LGBTQ community at the time.

So is gay acceptance the real meaning behind the “YMCA” song? The Village People are still in disagreement.

"Well, first of all, the song was never written about anything to do with gay,” founding member Felipe Rose (recognizable as the Native American) told the Huffington Post in 2014. “It was just a filler song, based on the ex-producer seeing the YMCA sign during lunch and asking us what it meant. Sure, there was ambiguity and they were using a double entendre, but it was really just supposed to be one more song to fill out the album.”

However, in an oral history from Spin, David Hodo (remembered as the construction worker) claims producer Jacques Morali, who died of AIDS in 1991, definitely intended it to be gay. Hodo says that someone made a joke while they were passing the McBurney YMCA in New York City about gay men at the Y that inspired Morali, a gay man, to write the song.

“‘Y.M.C.A.’ certainly has a gay origin,” he said in the 2008 interview. “That’s what Jacques was thinking when he wrote it, because our first album [1977’s ‘Village People’] was possibly the gayest album ever. I mean, look at us. We were a gay group. So was the song written to celebrate gay men at the YMCA? Yes. Absolutely. And gay people love it.”

However, singer Randy Jones (the cowboy) and Victor Willis (the cop) both claim that it isn’t intended to be specific to the LGBTQ community.

“It was not intended as a gay anthem. Do you have the lyrics in front of you? There’s nothing gay about them,” Jones said.

Jones doesn’t even think Hodo is correctly recalling how Morali was inspired.

“What happened is that when I moved to New York in 1975, I joined the McBurney YMCA on 23rd Street,” he continued. “I took Jacques there three or four times in 1977, and he loved it. He was fascinated by a place where a person could work out with weights, play basketball, swim, take classes, and get a room. Plus, with Jacques being gay, I had a lot of friends I worked out with who were in the adult-film industry, and he was impressed by meeting people he had seen in the videos and magazines. Those visits with me planted a seed in him, and that’s how he got the idea for ‘Y.M.C.A.’ — by literally going to the YMCA.”

Later, in 2014, Jones said anyone could find whatever meaning they were looking for. “I think you can go into the lyrics of ‘YMCA,’ and if you are a straight jock who worked out at the Y, you are going to perceive it one way,” Jones told Gothamist. “But if you happen to be a gay man and have the experience and perspective of hooking up with each other, it’s another way it can be perceived.”

In any case, it seems that Trump probably didn’t pick the song to promote gay rights. He has been repeatedly criticized by pro-LGBTQ goups, including the Human Rights Campaign and The Trevor Project.