All ymcas are gay cruising places

Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in Donate today. The song has also immortalized the Young Men's Christian Association in pop culture. Yet former residents of the McBurney Y in Chelsea — the building that inspired the song, and which was featured in the video released in late — say the reality of stays at the YMCA in those days was more complicated than the lyrics portray, with gay culture and working-class workouts coexisting in a single communal space.

But it was a serious gym for people who really wanted to go and work out every day, and a nice place to live for working-class people. The temporary arrangement became a year stay. Garrett adds undergraduate students and disabled men to the mix of ethnically and racially diverse renters, about half of whom he estimates were gay.

There were no cameras, but there was security, and it was very quiet. And I was crazy about working out, so the gym was my second home. Popularized at the tail end of the Industrial Revolution amid rapid city population growth, single-room occupancy residences featured one-room units often containing just a bed, with shared use of all ymcas are gay cruising places kitchen and bathroom facilities.

They largely disappeared starting in the late s, after decades of concern over poor living conditions, social demonization of the poor, and an aggressive real estate development push under New York City Mayor Ed Koch. Meanwhile, housekeepers came not just to offer towels and change your sheets, but to keep an eye on you, Kangappadan recalls.

And as a Spin oral history revealed on the song's 30th anniversary ten years ago, even the group itself didn't agree on the proper interpretation. The YMCA was, after all, a welcoming, inclusive space where any man could mostly get what he needed. There is a sense of having to be able to communicate with each other in plain sight, but without other people figuring it out.

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The Real Story Of The YMCA That Inspired The Village People's Gay Anthem

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