Village People lead singer Victor Willis says he got an apology from comedian Jim Jefferies for saying "Y.M.C.A." is code for gay sex, but he cops to the fact the song definitely can be taken 2 ways.

Victor jumped on TMZ's "2 Angry Men" podcast with Harvey and Mark Geragos, and admitted when he wrote the iconic song the lyrics were a double entendre -- straight people could interpret 'hangin' out with all the boys' as maybe playing hoops, while gay people could view it as gettin' down in various places at the facility.

By the way ... we contacted Jim Jefferies, who said Karen called him and said he could call "YMCA" a gay anthem but not say it's about "sex in the showers." Jim agreed not to keep talking about it but says he did not apologize.

Victor told Mark and Harvey something pretty shocking ... he says only 10% of their fan base is gay, and he may lose them because the gay community is super pissed that the group performed at several of Trump's inauguration balls.

And there's this ... Harvey noticed the Village People kinda kept their distance from Trump during the performance. Victor telegraphed he wasn't necessarily down with the President's policies, but hey, business is business!