Australian branch of global Christian organisation says ‘challenging’ decision is a way to embrace issues of import to young people – including marriage equality

Christian youth organisation the YMCA unexpectedly found itself the subject of a gay anthem when the Village People released what was intended to be a “filler” track as a single, in 1978.

Soon, whether you were five or 50, you weren’t just humming it but could do the dance too. These days, somehow, each new generation seems born knowing it – yet in 1978, rather than embracing it, the YMCA in America threatened legal action.

“The YMCA that didn’t like [the song], and they were going to sue us,” Felipe Rose, the Native American in the band, told News Limited. “But they realised they didn’t own the copyright to four letters.”

It’s taken almost 40 years for any branch of the organisation to capitalise on the enormous popularity of the song – but on Tuesday, YMCA Australia took the leap, partnering with British singer Boy George to rerecord the song in support of the Why Not? campaign which aims to shine a light on issues that are important to Australian young people: marriage equality, mental health and youth unemployment.

“We had a big conversation about how we can be a social movement for young people,” Melinda Crole, CEO of YMCA in Australia, told Guardian Australia. “One of the assets we had was the recognisable YMCA song. When you are introduced as working for the YMCA, you always got the arm movements.”

The decision to embrace the song – along with queerness and marriage equality – came from speaking to young people. “It was a challenging conversation for us as leaders – the baby boomers and Gen X,” Crole says. “We have to let go – it wasn’t about what we thought. It was about the young people.”

Crole says she didn’t consult with Christian organisations who oppose marriage equality. “Research shows an overwhelming link between marriage equality and mental health – we are prepared to stand up for that,” she says. The organisation itself, while based on Christian values, is not associated with any one church group.

“When you listen to the reason why the song was written and listen to the verses, then you see it fits with our social mission. We want to be a social movement for young people and with young people.”

Boy George’s version of YMCA is quite distinct from the disco original; it’s slowed right down, almost to torch song proportions.

Boy George told Guardian Australia: “It’s the opposite of the original version. It needs to be, in order to work as a cover. Who’d want to be reinventing the Eiffel Tower in exactly the same way?

“I thought I would give it a give a jazzy tone – but not too much Ethel Merman.”

Slowed down, it’s also possible to properly hear the lyrics, which – euphemistic as they may be – also contain a message of outreach.

Boy George acknowledges that the YMCA’s journey from shunning the song to embracing it is a road towards acceptance he has become familiar with over the course of his career. “I’ve lived through all of that as an artist, and as a person,” he says. “I’ve grown up with those sort of prejudices and misunderstandings.”

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Going to his first club aged 11, Boy George says: “My coming of age was in the 70s. A lot of people look back on it as a grim decade but I look back on it as a liberating time. Ziggy Stardust, the Village People and punk rock really shaped who I am as a person and as a gay man.”

Boy George has been in Australia for the last seven weeks as a judge on Australia’s The Voice; before that he had assumed that Australia was streets ahead of the game when it came to LGBTQI rights. Instead, he discovered Australia is one of the few developed countries in the world not to recognise same-sex marriage.

“You have in Australia a massive Mardi Gras. As an outsider, you don’t think of Australia as being old-fashioned – it’s only when you’ve been here for a period of time when you realise there are issues,” he says.