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Here's a lede we never thought we'd see in The New York Daily News:

Once upon a time there were two places where a young homosexual man could feel safe—the closet and the YMCA.

This probably wasn't what Londoner George Williams had in mind when he founded the Young Men's Christian Association in 1844 as a workingman's refuge with Bible readings and wholesome recreation. Williams' idea quickly spread around the world, and, starting in 1852, YMCAs sprouted up all over America—havens for fellows who were new in town or down on the ground.

Astute observers might have predicted what was to come when Brooklyn poet Walt Whitman, notorious for celebrating more than his own masculine charms, became one of the Y's most famous volunteer nurses during the Civil War.

All this, by way of an introduction to... The Village People.

Also, topping their super-sensitive 'Super-HIV Man' headline from last month, here's a line from the end of the piece:

On [The Village People] roared—starring in a movie, playing Las Vegas—until the mid-'80s, when disco died out and AIDS killed the fun.

Yeah, that's what AIDS killed: the fun.

Masculine charms [NYDN]