Gay Cowboy Culture Is Loud, Proud, and Ready to Two-Step Across the U.S.
From gay country-western bars to gay rodeos, queer cowboy culture is here to stay.
I had never seen so many cowboy hats, in so many colors. Under the neon glow of the outdoor stage, hundreds of makeshift cowboys and cowgirls were two-stepping across the dance floor at Austin’s Cheer Up Charlies, where a listening party for Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter had transformed the queer bar into an androgynous honky-tonk—bolo ties, boots, and Levi’s jeans for days. My husband and I drove down to Austin from Oklahoma City for a cowboy-themed weekend, anchored by the Cowboy Carter party at one of my favorite bars. I wore a bedazzled vest with cowboy boots, a bolo, and a black cowboy hat, and for the first time while wearing such an ensemble, I felt myself. By the time emcee Natalie Mother Lepore took the stage to kick off the rodeo with “YA YA,” the crowd sang along with thunderous precision, despite the album dropping mere hours ago. And truly, you haven’t lived until you’ve heard “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” at a gay bar in Texas.
While being a Texas bar, Cheer Up Charlies had never felt particularly Texas to me in the past, but rather a queer distraction from the Republican-led Capitol Building down the street. Nowadays, though, it—and so many others in Texas and beyond—is freely embracing its roots, loudly and proudly.
Gay cowboy bars, and gay cowboy culture, are nothing new. Gay people are everywhere, and do everything. Gay people have been cowboys since long before Orville Peck. It’s the conservative white gatekeepers who have kept the narrative heteronormative, clutching their pearls over Brokeback Mountain, erasing Lil Nas X from country charts, and—most recently—losing their collective mind over the fact that one of the greatest living artists of our time (Queen Bey) dared to tinker with banjos. Now, the noise is too loud for even the staunchest gatekeepers to deafen, casting overdue light on gay cowboy culture, and the country-western bars where it converges.
In addition to Cheer Up Charlies, Cowboy Carter has brought the country-themed boogie across the country, with parties in Beyoncé’s hometown of Houston, a country-inspired fashion collection at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and a full-blown Beyoncé rodeo on Nashville’s Lower Broadway. The singer, of course, is not queer. But her rallying cry helped kick open the gates on a facet of cowboy culture long silenced.
In Dallas, The Round-Up Saloon is one of the largest and most enduring gay country-western bars in the nation. Open since 1980, a little over a decade after Oil Can Harry’s in Los Angeles became the country’s first gay country-western bar, the Texas mainstay features gay bar requisites like drag shows, along with two-stepping lessons. And it’s the dancing that has both set it apart, and endeared it to wider audiences. According to co-owner Gary Miller, who purchased The Round-Up in 1998 with his partner Alan Pierce, country music was starting to become popular among the gay community in the ‘80s. The bar capitalized early by offering Western swing lessons and sponsoring the new gay rodeo. Over time, that interest only grew.
After a fire necessitated a temporary move in 1989 while the saloon was being rebuilt, The Round-Up has only gotten bigger and gayer, leaning into the cowboy motif with the addition of more bar areas, each with honkier and tonkier names, like The Tool Shed Bar (a tin-roofed daytime space bedecked with branding irons and chaps), The Corral patio bar, and The Horse Shoe Bar (a pump-action station overlooking the main dance floor, where scantily clad cowboys dance under the Texas flag and Lone Star beer signs). A big part of that growth, according to Miller, is the broadening of gay bars from niche oases to more inclusive spaces for larger demographics. “It’s fun to go to gay bars and be able to dance with anybody, it doesn’t matter what your preference is,” he says, describing the clientele now as far more diverse. “The gay community has changed so much in the last 30-40 years, opening up and widening up, and everybody has a good time.”
Gay cowboy bars are more inclusive, and offer more of a something-for-everyone vibe, than stereotypical gay nightclubs that populate some gayborhoods. At The Round-Up, that includes a game room with billiards and TVs for sports, the parlor for karaoke, and daytime hours for more leisurely interaction beyond the clamorous dance floor. It also speaks to the overall ethos of what a gay country western bar is. According to The Round-Up’s website, the key is “to appeal to a much broader and more varied audience than just the one segment of country music.” This means playing country music seven nights a week, with diverse playlists that include slower classics alongside newer bops. The Round-Up, too, hosted its own Cowboy Carter release party, citing the huge difference the album made in diversifying their clientele even further. “It’s a whole new audience for country bars, the Beyoncé crowd alone,” says Miller. “And everybody wants to hear that song, and do that dance.”
Country bars aren’t the only places where gay cowboy culture is experiencing a renaissance, though. After originating in the ‘70s in Reno as a way to raise funds for senior citizens on Thanksgiving and debunk heteronormative stereotypes, gay rodeo has gone on to subvert masculine tropes all over the country.
Mary Arbuckle, the executive director of Oklahoma’s Great Plains Rodeo Association, has been part of the Gay Rodeo since the ‘80s, initially as a charity partner with an HIV/AIDS organization called Other Options, before competing herself in ’91. She went on to become Miss OGRA (Oklahoma Gay Rodeo Association), and eventually, a world champion. For her, it’s the sense of community and camp that differentiates gay rodeos from their straight counterparts, and it’s what keeps her engaged and encouraged.
“We do the same events as straight rodeo, but we want to make it so that everyone can join in the rodeo,” says Arbuckle of the intentional lack of gatekeeping at gay rodeo. “You don’t have to have a horse to compete, or be a rough stock rider. We want to make it where everyone can join in the rodeo.” Described as “camp events,” gay rodeos, which are held annually in cities from San Francisco to Oklahoma City, showcase irreverent competitions that don’t take themselves too seriously, like steer decorating (tying ribbons on steers’ tails), goat dressing (putting underwear on goats), and wild drag (exactly what it sounds like: drag queens mounting steers).
Gay cowboy culture is rooted in community and inclusivity. Since its inception, gay rodeos—and their kindred gay cowboy bars—have raised money for partner charities, and served as beacons for queer people and allies alike. “I wish younger generations would find out that rodeo is not just being on a horse, it’s coming together as a family,” says Arbuckle, noting the myriad ways for people to get involved, from competing to volunteering and helping with steers. “It can still be competitive, but we want more people to come and see what we’re about, so we can continue this legacy.”
In addition to rodeo events, Arbuckle and the Great Plains Rodeo Association visit gay bars in Oklahoma to engage with the community and make connections. “That’s how we try to introduce people to our rodeo,” she says. “All year long, they go out and talk about the rodeo and go to Pride parades, and showcase who they are. Straight rodeos don’t go out and do things like that.”
That sense of welcoming camaraderie is what keeps gay cowboy bars as kickin’ as gay rodeos. From the Badlands Saloon in Las Vegas and The County Line in Oklahoma City to Flaming Saddles in New York City and Rainbow Cattle Co. in Guerneville, California, these are spaces designed to be fun, campy, and communal, where patrons can where whatever cowboy attire they want without fear of ridicule. Newer, splashier names have opened the gates even further, but pioneers like The Round-Up and the Great Plains Rodeo Association paved the way and persevered.
Like gay rodeos, The Round-Up regularly donates to charities, especially HIV/AIDS organizations like Dallas’ Legacy Cares. The bar also sponsors gay sports leagues and Texas’ gay rodeo, opening up the dance floor to a vaster pool of customers. Gary’s son Kevin Miller, who serves as The Round-Up’s general manager, is a straight ally who can speak to the bar’s inclusive atmosphere. “To look at The Round-Up for the next 15 or 20 years, it’s based on the people we have here representing us,” he explains. “Our customers who are younger, we know they’re looking for an experience when they come in, not just to have a drink and dance.”
And an experience is exactly what gay cowboy culture is. It’s putting undies on a goat, it’s dressing up as Orville Peck for Halloween, it’s making Canadian tuxedos look sexy, it’s two-stepping to “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM.” Gay cowboy culture is nothing new, but as evidenced by the thunderous cowboy-clad crowds at Cheer Up Charlies and the drag queens wrangling steers, it’s never been louder or prouder.