A wheelchair user prepares to lasso a calf at the 2020 Keystone State Gay Rodeo Photo: Shelly Stallsmith via Imagn Content Services, LLC via IMAGN
When doctors first diagnosed Malcolm Cook with a degenerative brain disease seven years ago, they told him he’d be using a wheelchair within five years. While he accepted their prediction, he continues to walk using an assistive device, and he thanks the Missouri Gay Rodeo Association (MGRA) and its inclusiveness for inspiring him to continue participating with the device.
“Basically, my cerebellum is shrinking — I have no sense of balance,” Cook told KSHB, describing the disease, known as spinocerebellar ataxia. “The doctor said, ‘You don’t have a sense of balance; you’re going to lose your ability to walk,’ so I kind of gave up. I was like, ‘OK, I’m gonna be in a wheelchair; give me a wheelchair.’”
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However, his girlfriend Melody, who performed as a drag king at the MGRA rodeo, invited him to the event to support her. The rodeo ended up supporting him too — the attendees and competitors there raised money to help him buy a lightweight assistive walking device with special, puncture-proof all-terrain tires to help him walk over rocky and uneven surfaces.
In fact, they raised all the funds in just five hours.
Now, he’s able to participate in various MGRA rodeo events like calf roping with a lasso and goat dressing, a hilarious event where two people try and put oversized underwear on a goat.
“If it wasn’t for this rodeo, I probably would be in a wheelchair by now,” he said. “I thought, ‘Because I’m disabled, I can’t do anything. I’ll just sit in my chair and exist.’ Here the cowboys said, ‘No, come play with us in the dirt,’ so I did and I do it every year.”
Because he has stayed active and moving, he has remained more mobile than he initially thought possible.
“The rodeo gave me freedom and the independence to do what I want. It helped prove to myself that I can beat this, I can do this.”
The gay rodeo has provided an inclusive environment
For decades, the gay rodeo has provided a safe space for LGBTQ cowhands to compete in events like bull riding, barrel racing, and calf roping as their true selves. It is a space participants describe as free from discrimination and filled with camaraderie.
Unlike other non-LGBTQ+ specific rodeos, the gay rodeo encourages a culture of supporting one another. Participants generally want to help one another succeed, even if they are competing against each other.
“A lot of the contestants we have and the members, a lot of the times they go to the rodeo just to meet the friends they have made over time,” Josef Lorenzo, a cultural analyst who appeared in a PBS program about the gay rodeo, told LGBTQ Nation. “It’s like Pride. It’s a place to get together to be open about your sexuality.”
“It’s just another example of how the gay rodeo is really inclusive for all people,” Lorenzo said. “Whether you’re gay or straight, a man or woman or trans, anyone can compete on equal footing.”
The gay rodeo also allows non-LGBTQ+ people to participate. “We don’t discriminate in any respect,” said Lorenzo. The gay rodeo also hosts its own unique events, such as the “Wild Drag Race,” which involves three participants, one of whom must be in drag. The person in drag is responsible for riding a steer (a type of bull) across the finish line.
The gay rodeo was founded in the mid-1970s by Phil Ragsdale. At that time, he struggled to find animals because ranchers didn’t want gay people touching their livestock. But Ragsdale persevered, and over 125 people showed up to that first event. Not only that, but Ragsdale held it as a charitable event, with the proceeds going to a Thanksgiving dinner for senior citizens.
To this day, the International Gay Rodeo Association remains a nonprofit and requires gay rodeos to be held as such, something not true of traditional rodeos.
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