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Yonden Lhatoo

Love him or loathe him, everyone is talking about US President Donald Trump dad-dancing on the campaign trail to the beat of YMCA, the 1970s hit song by American disco band the Village People.
Video clips of his dance moves, an awkward combination of intermittent fist-pumping, swaying, knee-bobbing, finger-pointing and clapping, have gone viral and make for compulsive viewing.
But it’s the incongruity of the iconic song itself in the context of his rightwing, conservative, Bible-thumping, evangelical Christian-backed politics that’s making waves. Trump is actually getting his groove from a song that has long been a gay anthem and staple of LGBTQ celebrations. It’s kind of like Attila the Hun turning out to be a fan of ballet.

The Village People band was a product of the disco scene of the 1970s, with members taking on exaggerated, macho, gay-fantasy personas in denim and leather. And YMCA was widely accepted as a wink and a nod to the cruising and hooking up for clandestine sexual encounters that allegedly went on at those friendly neighbourhood, all-male institutions.
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As such, the innuendo and double entendre seem apparent enough in lyrics that otherwise may just constitute an innocent account of suburban youth enjoying sporting activities at the local club.

Young man, there’s a place you can go
I said, young man, when you’re short on your dough
You can stay there, and I’m sure you will find
Many ways to have a good time
It’s fun to stay at the YMCA
It’s fun to stay at the YMCA
They have everything for you men to enjoy
You can hang out with all the boys …
Keep in mind, though, that the frontman for the Village People – said to be a straight guy regardless of his leather-clad “sexy cop” persona in the old days – recently made a clarification about YMCA while stating that he was OK with the Trump campaign enjoying the hit song he wrote.

“I will sue the next media organisation, or anyone else, that falsely suggests YMCA is somehow about illicit gay sex. Get your mind out of the gutter please,” Victor Willis wrote in a Facebook post.
Trump’s detractors found more reason to raise eyebrows and make fun when, at the Florida rally where the president was bopping to the beat, he also threatened to wade into his adoring audience and “start kissing everybody”, man or woman.
“Look at that guy, how handsome he is, I’ll kiss him,” Trump said, pointing at one of his fans in the crowd. Then he added a quick disclaimer to put his own heterosexuality on the record: “Not with a lot of enjoyment, but that’s OK.”


While Trump is out celebrating his purported “immunity” to Covid-19 after testing positive, his critics have condemned what they see as his tone-deafness to the suffering caused by the pandemic, with more than 8 million Americans infected and well over 218,000 dead so far. They have accused him of “dancing on the graves” of so many people whose deaths could have been prevented if not for his cavalier attitude to fighting the disease.
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Of course, his diehard fan base doesn’t see it that way at all and is raring to see him waltz his way right back into the White House for a second term. But what would happen to the music if he were to end up losing the election next month? Perhaps he could sing this sad swansong to his followers:
I’m never gonna dance again
Guilty feet have got no rhythm
Though it’s easy to pretend
I know you’re not a fool
I should have known better than to cheat a friend
And waste a chance that I’d been given
So I’m never gonna dance again
The way I danced with you …
Yonden Lhatoo is the chief news editor at the Post


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What’s up with Donald Trump and his YMCA dad-dance?

President Donald Trump dances to the song YMCA as he finishes a campaign rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Photo: AP

=== PHOTO CAPTURED ONLINE=== The Village People, the group behind huge gay anthems such as Macho Man and YMCA. Photo: Amazon

***HANDOUT PICTURE - ONE USE ONLY***The Village People's first cop Victor Willis.

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(L-R) Tung Chee-hwa, Former Chief Executive; Luo Huining, Director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in HKSAR; Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, Chief Executive of Hong Kong, attends the Liaison Office spring reception at the HKCEC in Wan Chai. 15JAN20 SCMP / Sam Tsang

epaselect epa08523256 US President Donald J. Trump swings a baseball bat made by Texas Timber Bat Company, while participating in the 'Spirit of America Showcase', at the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 02 July 2020. The event is a showing of American products ahead of 04 July Independence Day. EPA-EFE/MICHAEL REYNOLDS

PACIFIC OCEAN (Aug. 2, 2020) Lt. Rodney Wagstaff, from Slidell, Louisiana, signals an F/A-18E Super Hornet, attached to the Royal Maces of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 27, to launch from the flight deck of the Navyâs only forward-deployed aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76). Ronald Reagan, the flagship of Carrier Strike Group 5, provides a combat-ready force that protects and defends the United States, as well as the collective maritime interests of its allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region. 02AUG20 HANDOUT/ U.S. Navy photo

U.S. President Donald Trump meets with China's President Xi Jinping at the start of their bilateral meeting at the G20 leaders summit in Osaka, Japan, June 29, 2019. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

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US President Donald Trump gives a thumbs up as he walks to Marine One prior to leaving for Walter Reed Military Medical Centre. Photo: AFP

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden delivers remarks in the parking lot of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 951 while campaigning Oct. 2, 2020 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Biden said he tested negative twice Friday for the coronavirus after it was reported that U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump tested positive for COVID-19. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/TNS)

TOPSHOT - US President Donald Trump walks off Marine One while arriving at Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland on October 2, 2020, after testing positive for covid-19. - President Donald Trump will spend the coming days in a military hospital just outside Washington to undergo treatment for the coronavirus, but will continue to work, the White House said Friday (Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP)

epa08715644 The wax figure of US President Donald Trump has been 'quarantined' at Madame Tussauds by putting a face mask and a placard in the window of Tussauds on the Dam, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 02 October 2020. Trump and his wife Melania have been infected with the coronavirus Sars-CoV-2 and have gone into self-isolation at the White House.  EPA-EFE/KOEN VAN WEEL

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Yonden Lhatoo tries to come to terms with the astonishing spectacle of the American president dancing on stage to an old pop song that is widely enjoyed as a gay anthem



Yonden Lhatoo tries to come to terms with the astonishing spectacle of the American president dancing on stage to an old pop song that is widely enjoyed as a gay anthem.


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US presidential election 2020

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What’s up with Donald Trump and his YMCA dad-dance?

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Yonden Lhatoo tries to come to terms with the astonishing spectacle of the American president dancing on stage to an old pop song that is widely enjoyed as a gay anthem

Yonden Lhatoo tries to come to terms with the astonishing spectacle of the American president dancing on stage to an old pop song that is widely enjoyed as a gay anthem