This coming Saturday, July 26th, is  National Day of the Cowboy, which is a day to honor the contributions of cowboys and cowgirls to American history and culture.  Including gay ones, we hope. We thought we would mark the day by reviewing “Queens & Cowboys: A Straight Year on the Gay Rodeo,” a documentary from 2014 about a complete season of the International Gay Rodeo Association.

It’s the debut feature from filmmaker Matt Livadary, who shot over 800 hours of footage in what would become a multi-award-winning film that ended up on Netflix. He doesn’t hide his passion for these singularly minded gay men and women, living in isolated parts of the country, whose lives revolve around the gay rodeo circuit across the US (and Canada). They, too, are passionate about gay rodeos that started back in 1985, but whose future survival will depend on whether they can persuade the younger gay generation to join them.

Livadary’s cameras follow a handful of participants, giving us a compelling look at how their own lives are centred around the Rodeos. Such as Char Duran, who spends every day of her annual vacation as a bull rider. She has yet to win a buckle despite suffering a series of injuries that cause no end of distress to her mother and girlfriend. (and would certainly put off this writer) She competes in a category not open to women at conventional rodeos, and now, aged 42, she realises her chance of getting even one winner’s buckle is fading fast. 

Wade Earp (a distant relative of legendary lawman Wyatt) has won some 200 buckles even though his goal of winning “All Around Cowboy” at the World Gay Rodeo Finals has long eluded him.  He is  totally charming loner living on a small farm in Texas who has recently discovered he is  HIV-positive.  His lover of 5 years had died from AIDS although he had never disclosed his condition.  He imbues a calm confidence through most of this and he declares “I live and breathe cowboy…I just happen to be gay,” .

Several of the people Livadary interviewed spoke about some of the harrassment for being gay,  but one of the suprising stories about being accepted came from Travis Gardner a volunteer organizer a trans man whose parents supported his journey.  I think that alone blows away some of the prejuduced views we hold about how gay people are often accepted in remote rural areas in ways we would have never perceived,

What really does impress is the genuine sense of camaradie and undiluted friendship that pervades througout and comes to a tear-jerking climax when one of their leading lights succumbs to cancer.

To all of us city queers who may have thought the only gay cowboys were the ones in Brokeback Mountain, this film is quite the eye opener,  And a good one too. And I may be prejudiced (!) but it seemed to ma that once again this gay version has soooo much more style and fun than the original.