Fifty years ago, Phil Ragsdale wanted to hold a gay rodeo. Getting the animals proved much harder than finding the idea.
According to OutHistory’s account of the first Reno Gay Rodeo, local ranchers repeatedly refused to rent livestock after learning that the event was sponsored by the gay community. Ragsdale finally secured animals from a rancher in Fallon the night before the rodeo.
On October 2, 1976, the event went ahead at the Washoe County Fairgrounds in Reno, Nevada. What began as a charitable fundraising idea became the starting point for a lasting LGBTQ+ sporting tradition.
Fifty years later, another gathering
This October, that tradition reached another milestone. As Gayety reports, the 38th World Gay Rodeo Finals returned to El Reno, Oklahoma, in gay rodeo’s 50th-anniversary year.
The International Gay Rodeo Association’s official programme placed the event at the Canadian County Expo & Event Center from October 22–25, with rodeo competition on the final two days.
The schedule combined familiar contests such as bull riding, barrel racing and team roping with gay rodeo’s distinctive camp events. Royalty competitions added western wear, public presentation and entertainment to the weekend.
IGRA describes its events as welcoming participants without discrimination and supporting charitable organizations alongside the sport.
The mother everyone called “mom”
For a sense of what that welcome means, an earlier visit to the El Reno finals offers a particularly human example.
Reporting for KOSU in October 2024, journalist Anna Pope met Anna Sherman, a competitor from Mangum, Oklahoma. Sherman had become involved because her son asked her to compete with him.
Among other competitors, she was commonly known as “mom.”
In that same report, then-rodeo director Mark Christensen described the community’s priorities: “We are about family.”
Those remarks come from the 2024 finals, but they offer valuable background to the anniversary: this is a sporting community where relatives can join in and friendships can become lasting sources of support.
A tradition with a future
The early obstacles make the anniversary worth remembering. Before there could be a circuit, championship weekends or generations of shared memories, someone had to insist that a gay rodeo could happen at all.
Ragsdale’s determination helped create that opportunity. Fifty years later, another group of competitors has gathered in an arena under the gay rodeo banner.
The story holds competition, humour and western tradition together with something many LGBTQ+ people recognize immediately: the pleasure of finding a place where you belong.
📷 @igrarodeo
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