Michael Hone

Ymca Michael Hone

The YMCA was a religious grouping of men, an uplifting assembly based on shared spiritual values between members, in search, often in bible classes, of Christ-like purity. With the genesis of the concept that a man's body was the shrine in which he sheltered his immortal soul, came the desire to preserve, even embellish, each man's physical cathedral. Y publications, like the cover of this book, showed photographs of men, at times seminude and nude, as proof of what could be achieved thanks to regular gymnastics and healthy food, photos that escaped censorship because they were published by a Christian organization while, at the exact same time, in 1907, the magazine Physical Culture faced obscenity trials for publishing the same identical material. The combination of pictures of the ideal man in the Y's religiously-oriented magazines, the encouragement of fellowship between men and incentives to make men beautiful in body, as well as the benefits of camping, sharing a tent with a friend, campfire breakfasts in briefs, buck-naked swimming, all served to focus a lad's attention on the homoerotic elements of Y friendships. Having sex at a Y was not only safe, but it was uplifting in the sense that one could attend, at the same time, a variety of educational classes, bible study and body-toning exercises. In addition to Y showers and locker rooms, one could leave one's door ajar, not even bothering to open one's eyes when a perfect stranger slipped in to do homage to a naked body spread out over a bed. Where else could one have better preliminaries than the stimulation of observing guys working out in gyms, or nude in the pools and showers? A brief come-hither flash of the eyes, one all boys are immediately familiar with, and off to the dorm. Never, since Ancient Greece, had males had it so good, a reality that had its apotheosis in the Village People's song ''Y. M. C. A.''This is the story of how the Y became the homosexual haven it is today.