Yankee Stadium: Where the "Gays Are Diseased" Myth Thrives

Baseball is without a doubt of one America's most treasured pastimes. There's the foul balls, the hot dogs, beer, mascots that dance on top of dugouts, and of course the music that reverberates from the stadium speakers to rile up the crowd.

Everyone has a favorite baseball anthem. There's "Centerfield," "The Boys Are Back in Town," "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," "We Will Rock You," and even "Sweet Caroline," if you happen to catch a game in Boston at Fenway. There's also the universal sports anthem, "YMCA," which tends to get the crowds dancing, and thousands of arms extend into the air.

Unless you're sitting in a certain section of Yankee Stadium, it seems. There, YMCA becomes perhaps one of the crassest anti-gay anthems around, with a bunch of words tweaked to blast fans from opposing teams as diseased gay freaks. Here's the YouTube, and here's some of the lines.

"Gay man, get up off of your knees / I said gay man, you will catch a disease / I said gay man, don't touch me please / because you have got a disease," the fans sing. And then comes the rousing chorus, sure to make any LGBT person in the crowd feel all warm and fuzzy.

"Why are you gay? / I saw you sucking some d-i-c-k."

As if this Boston resident needed one more reason to dislike the Yankees. This song comes at a time where New York has seen an explosion of anti-gay violence, including a hate crime at the Stonewall Inn, a hate crime in Chelsea, a brutal and disgusting hate crime committed by a gang against several gay men in the Bronx, as well as the suicide of gay Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi, who jumped off the George Washington Bridge several weeks ago.

Does the award for most tactless sports fan go to the New York Yankees?

The verses in the song only continue to get worse as they go on.

"Gay man, wipe that sperm off your chin / I said gay man, what you do is a sin / I said gay man, I won't let you in / because you have got a disease."

Seriously, this isn't made up. Check out the YouTube clips here and here. And apparently Yankee fans unloaded on a Minnesota Twins fan last week with the same song, prompting the fan to write a scathing review of Yankee fans.

"As a Midwest native showing up to the game in my Twins regalia, I expected to be picked on. I expected to be heckled. What I did not expect was to hear homophobic and anti-gay cheers sung by the crowd," the Twins fan wrote. "Lyrics called people who are gay sinners and disease-ridden. I couldn't believe my ears. Whatever people may say about Minnesota or the Midwest, such hurtful and disgusting things would never be shouted at a Twins game. What an embarrassment for Yankees fans and New York City."

Embarrassment is putting it mildly.

And that's exactly the point made by activist and videographer Sean Chapin, who put together a terrific clip about how rhetoric like this Yankees song sends the message that LGBT people are degenerates. Then he connects the song to the tragic suicides of a number of LGBT youth of late: Asher Brown, Justin Aaberg, Seth Walsh, and Raymond Chase, to name a few.

Homophobia literally kills. Yes, a fan showing up in Red Sox gear or Twins gear can expected to be heckled in the Yankee stands. But to compose a song based on the premise that gay people are diseased? That's not heckling. It's disturbing, and it says a lot about the character of any fan who would sing this song proudly.

Check out Chapin's video below. And send a message to the Yankees here, letting them know that this type of image coming out of the stadium reflects poorly on their team. Can a song like this truly make LGBT fans and/or straight allies feel safe in the stands?

Photo credit: Kevin Coles