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  • Slapping Leather: Queer Cowfolx at the Gay Rodeo by Elyssa Ford book cover
  • Slapping Leather: Queer Cowfolx at the Gay Rodeo by Elyssa Ford book cover
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Slapping Leather: Queer Cowfolx at the Gay Rodeo

by Elyssa Ford

Gay rodeo, community, and the making of the cowboy

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AlbakiReads Editorial

Gay rodeo, community, and the making of the cowboy

Tracing gay rodeo from its emergence in the mid-1970s, Elyssa Ford examines how the sport created space for LGBTQ+ participants while challenging the masculine ideal attached to the American West’s cowboy image. The history also attends to tensions within that community: its origins among gay men, the uneven acceptance of women and other LGBTQ+ groups, and its relationship to mainstream rodeo. Built from archival research and more than seventy oral history interviews, the book connects the experiences of participants, volunteers, and spectators to broader questions of gender, belonging, and who gets to claim the cowboy tradition.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in LGBTQ+ history and community-building
  • Readers exploring rodeo, the American West, or gender in sport
  • Readers interested in oral histories and archival research

Themes

LGBTQ+ community and belongingCowboy masculinity and gender stereotypesGay rodeo and mainstream sportWomen’s participation and inclusion

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

Unapologetically brings gay rodeo out of the closet

Campy and competitive, gay rodeo offers a community of refuge that straddles the urban and rural. Since the mid-1970s, gay rodeos have provided space to both embrace and challenge the idealized masculinity associated with the iconic cowboy of the US West. Slapping Leather traces the history and growth of gay rodeo over the decades, demonstrating how queer cowfolx have fought to build a community where LGBTQ+ people can escape discrimination in both mainstream rodeos and broader society.

Yet not all LGBTQ+ groups have found full acceptance in gay rodeo. Originally formed by gay men for gay men, the rodeo has at times perpetuated historically problematic ideas about the US West, the iconic cowboy, and the meaning of masculinity. Despite the gay rodeo's credo of acceptance, its history reveals complicated relationships with straight rodeo, gender stereotypes, and women competitors. Drawing from multiple archives and over seventy oral history interviews, historians Elyssa Ford and Rebecca Scofield demonstrate how amid these tensions, participants, volunteers, and spectators continue to redefine the performance of the cowboy and national belonging.

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