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Article improvement subpage. Montanabw(talk) 19:46, 3 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Sources

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List sources here for review

Content

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Propose edits here, when consensus is reached, they can be moved into the article.[1]

Homosexuality in cowboy culture

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During the 1800s, for every woman that lived on the Frontier, there were six men.[2] So it was difficult for men to socialize with a woman, let alone marry one. Hence, men often formed intimate friendships, which sometimes ended in real love stories, and it was accepted as a fact of life.[citation needed] It is difficult to know up to what point these same-sex relationships were simply due to the lack of women, or if this kind of life attracted men who preferred the company of other men.[3][failed verification]

Cowboy stag dance c.1910.

Western writer, Larry McMurty, believes that cowboys were not repressed gay men, but rather repressed straight men "complicated by a heroic concept of life that simply takes little account of women."[4][failed verification] This is the same view held by Alfred Kinsey, who reasoned that "western men have "sexual relations with women when they are available," but when they are not they turn to other men."[5][failed verification] Regardless, some men were drawn to the frontier because they were, in fact, attracted to men.[6][failed verification]

The lack of women in the region meant men mostly socialized together.[dubiousdiscuss] [7][failed verification][better source needed][8]

"Little Joe Monahan," born Johanna Monahan. c.1870s

While homosexual acts between young, unmarried men occurred, cowboy culture itself was, and remains, deeply homophobic.[citation needed]

There were also lesbians and transexual cowboys. One example was "Little Joe Monahan," who worked in Idaho and Oregon.[9] Joe left Buffalo, NY and went went west in 1869. He was strong with a gun and with horse, and eventually acquired over 100 head of cattle. But, after leading cattle through the valley during a bleak winter, Joe caught a cough and died in early 1904. His birth gender was only discovered upon his death. [10][11] [12]

In 1985, the International Gay Rodeo Association was founded, nearly 10 years after the first gay rodeo.[13] And, in 2005, Brokeback Mountain became the first mainstream film about homosexuality within the cowboy culture.[citation needed]

African-Amercan cowboys

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Mexican cowboys in the United States

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Native American cowboys

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References

  1. ^ references formatted for the article will appear here
  2. ^ "Old West: 1869, Wyoming grants women the vote". History.com.
  3. ^ Beemyn, Brett Genny (2007). Aldrich, Robert (ed.). Gleich und anders (in German). Hamburg: Murmann. pp. 158–159. ISBN 3-938017-81-3.
  4. ^ Westermeier, Clifford P. (1975). "Cowboy Sexuality: A Historical No-No?". Red River Valley Historical Review. Vol. Spring, no. 1. p. 105.
  5. ^ Boag, Peter (1998). "Sexuality, Gender, and Identity In Great Plains History and Myth". Great Plains Quarterly. Vol. Fall. Idaho State University. pp. 327–340.
  6. ^ John D'Emilio and Estelle Freedman; Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America; ISBN 0226142647.
  7. ^ Wilke, Jim. Frontier Comrades: homosexuality in the America West. pp. 164–172; Out In All Directions: the Almanac of Gay and Lesbian America; Edited by Lynn Witt, Sherry Thomas and Eric Marcus; New York: Warner Books; 1995; p. 635|ISBN 0446567213
  8. ^ Dunn, Jerry (2008). San Francisco. National Geographic Books. p. 53.
  9. ^ Gutierrez Venable, Cecilia (2016). ""Having' a Good Time": Women Cowhands and Johana July, a Black Seminole Vaaquera". In Glasrud, Bruce A.; Searles, Michael N. (eds.). Black Cowboys in the American West: On the Range, on the Stage, behind the Badge. University of Oklahoma Press.
  10. ^ ""Cowboy Jo was a Woman!"". The American Magazine. 23 Mar 1904.
  11. ^ ""Cowboy Jo was a Woman!"". Buffalo Evening News- Three O'Clock Edition. 11 Jan 1904.
  12. ^ "Boise Evening Capital News". Idaho Daily Statesman. 9 Apr 1904.
  13. ^ "Gay Rodeo History," International Gay Rodeo Association, accessed 3 July 2011. Archived August 6, 2011, at the Wayback Machine

Discussion

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