Organized gay rodeos and gay rodeo associations began to emerge in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. LGBTQ people involved with rodeo sports experienced discrimination in traditional rodeo spaces, and they found community and celebrated their participation in inclusive organizations and inclusive events. Some of the first gay rodeos occurred in Nevada and California but soon spread to other areas. New York City’s Gay Men’s Health Crisis, for example, sponsored “The World’s Toughest Rodeo” in Madison Square Garden in 1983 to raise money during the AIDS crisis. Founded in 1985, the International Gay Rodeo Association sanctioned official events and served as a governing body for gay rodeos, which slowly proliferated around the country. By the 1990s and early 2000s, gay rodeos increased in number and in popularity and attracted corporate sponsorships.

For more information on the history of gay rodeos, please see:

Elyssa Ford and Rebecca Scofield, Slapping Leather: Queer Cowfolx at the Gay Rodeo (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2024)

Villanueva, Nicholas, Jr., Rainbow Cattle Co: Liberation, Inclusion, and the History of Gay Rodeo (Lincoln: Nebraska, 2024)