"Professional Bull Riding" Ropes in Gay Fans

The 2010 season of Professional Bull Riding recently returned to our television screens, and for any gay or bisexual male viewer who hasn't caught a few minutes of this entertainment-driven version of the rough stock rodeo sport on NBC, FOX, or Versus.TV, you might not have realized something very interesting: bull riders are damn sexy.

Broadcast on Saturdays and Sundays, a typical PBR show unfolds like a candy-colored kaleidoscope version of Brokeback Mountain. Sporting snug denim jeans and elaborate western wear, ruggedly handsome riders like J.B. Mauney and Kasey Hayes make entrances on runways as lasers, fireworks and giant sculptures of bulls with flaming nostrils greet them.

The riders size each other up as they compete for the chance to compete on bulls with names such as Drunk Money or Charmed I'm Sure. Once the pairings are made, cameras take the TV audience right into the holding pen with the cowboys as they rosin their ropes (make them easier to grip with a type of resin) and are helped by other riders to steady the bucking bulls.

Ryan McConnel

When the chute opens, man and bull burst into an arena packed with screaming fans, traditional leather chaps flailing wildly as the rider attempts the light-speed, counter-movement "interactive dance" that is said to be key to the sport.

The whole ride is over in 8 seconds.

But the show keeps going as the cameras capture the riders in breathless post-ride interviews, throwing tantrums, or even being dragged from the arena to the examining room after an injury as the crowd roars.

The showbiz razzle dazzle of a typical PBR broadcast is fake enough to have probably made Andy Warhol blush, and with all the elaborate western gear, helmets, bells, klieg lights, and, yes, beefcake backstage, the PBR footage often looks as if at any moment it could break into a scene from The Village People musical Can't Stop the Music.

Which might be part of the reason PBR has gained a gay male cult following.

"I am not surprised that bull riding has a fan base of gay men," says PBR's official rodeo clown and professional entertainer Flint Rasmussen (pictured, right). "Rodeo is a festival of family, parades, queens, clowns, and, of course, the rodeo. Although PBR events almost fall into the 'concert tour' category, the cowboys are tough and gritty competitors who want to do whatever it takes to win. The fact that we're appealing to a broader fan base is fine with me."

Wade Earp is currently the #1 bull rider for the 2009 season of the International Gay Rodeo Association (an umbrella organization comprised of regional gay rodeo associations across the U.S. and Canada), and has participated in gay rodeo for 18 years. He plans on continuing to compete for the title through the current season which finishes up at the IGRA 2010 World Gay Rodeo Finals in Laughlin, Nevada in October.