Texas gay rodeo association
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She did so well that her dad decided to buy her a better horse.
Candy and her partner Rue, also an IGRA hall-of-famer, live here full time. Tickets cost $10 at the gate. He doesn’t rope, he says, because he’s too old. In addition, TGRA as a statewide organization currently holds an Annual Rodeo, which all chapters get an opportunity to host.
One facet of our many activities is Royalty, where candidates vie for the title of Mr., Miss, Ms.
and MsTer TGRA. “But now convention centers have even started inviting us, because they see the business value.”
For three days in late April, more than 100 men and women from across Texas and at least nine other states gathered at Mesquite Arena in the Dallas suburb of Mesquite to compete in the association’s 33rd annual Texas Tradition Rodeo.
He also had a full beard. Membership participation in TGRA activities, while not mandatory, is appreciated.
“Sexuality doesn't define what you like, and there's a space for everyone here,” said Berger.
"It shouldn't be a black-and-white world; it should be a multicolored, faceted world where everybody gets to be themselves," said Earp.
Rainbow Rodeo
The Texas Gay Rodeo Association has been busting stereotypes for more than three decades.
Photos by Brian Maschino
@BrianMaschino
June 11, 2018
When the Texas Gay Rodeo Association was founded in 1985, most of its members were still in the closet.
They’re prepping for A Texas Tradition, the annual gay rodeo held May 24 to 26 in neighboring Denton.
The auburn-haired cowboy goes by Alexis, although his real name is Philip Blakesley. The taller of the two is wearing, among other things, Liza Minnelli-esque false eyelashes and earrings the size of door knobs.
“Used to be, they wouldn’t even allow us into venues, and we’d have to find a spot wherever we could,” Smith says. Each TGRA chapter decides how to donate its allotted funds, a direct function of how much was raised during the prior year. She’s not having any of it. The following goes on the record: “You wear a straw from Easter up to Labor Day, and then you quit wearing straw after Labor Day and you wear the felt.
One is holding a pair of whitey tighties. Both men are wearing matching TGRA shirts with their names embroidered on the chest.
Future
This year, as TGRA celebrates 31 years of service, we look to many more years of active community involvement.
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for the next long while, vowing never to move back to Texas. “I’ll do whatever you want, sweetheart,” he says. “At the end of the year, if the rodeo is profitable and everything, that money goes back to the cities where it was raised.”
Edlin is serving his third, two-year term as TGRA president.
Participants do not have to be LGBTQIA+ to participate.
When she was in third grade her father—who was a semi-pro golf player—bought Candy her first pony. But Lumpkins was staring off into space in what seemed like a trance.
“I was distracted, not listening to them, and suddenly hear, ‘Chicken Nugget!’ really loud. Lynch
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“They had something going on at every single moment the entire weekend,” he says. Other types of agencies are also supported by TGRA contributions: women's health projects, breast cancer, disaster relief, and children's programs to name just a few. The other one is in charge of wrangling the goat. |