Sunday 29 March 2009

Gay Cowboys


A 33-year-old rancher, Mr. Glover comes from a family that has worked the land around Lusk for generations. His father still runs 300 head of cattle.

Seated at a table in the smoky Outpost Cafe alongside Highway 85, Mr. Glover laid out the story of a typical ranch-country boyhood: herding, branding, culling and haying, horses hobbled on picket lines and calves pulled forcibly from their mother's bodies during spring calving. Every summer Mr. Glover sets out with his brother in a panel truck carrying their two quarter horses, to compete in calf and steer roping competitions. "I never had any intention of leaving the cowboy lifestyle," Mr. Glover said. "Ranching is who I am."

Yet next month Mr. Glover will quit Lusk and that part of himself in order to move to the bright lights of Lander, Wyo. (population 6,864). "I don't really want to do it," Mr. Glover said. Yet he has to, he explained, if he ever wants to live his life openly. Like Jack Twist, the rodeo-loving character portrayed by Jake Gyllenhaal in "Brokeback Mountain", Derrick Glover is gay.

"They always define it as coming out of the closet, but I don't consider myself to be out of the closet," Mr. Glover explained. There is a reason for that, he said. "Where I live, you can't really go out and be yourself. You couldn't go out together, two guys, as a couple and ever be accepted. It wasn't accepted in the past, it's still not, and I don't think it ever will be." That he and some of the others interviewed for this article were willing to be named and photographed was not without social and even physical risk.
***

When Mr. Ledger's character defiantly asserts, "I ain't queer," following a drunken coupling with Mr. Gyllenhaal's character in their sheepherder's tent, it seems clear that as much as he fears the loss of his cowboy machismo, he is equally scared to relinquish his physical safety once the two come down from Brokeback Mountain.

"I grew up with that same kind of fear and conflict," Ben Clark, a fourth- generation rancher from Jackson said on Tuesday. "Growing up, I never even dreamed that a real cowboy would be gay," Mr. Clark added. It is a belief in which he is not alone.

"I awakened to my same-sex attraction when I was 12," said Mr. Clark, who is now 42. "But I had no idea what to do about it, ever. I was raised in a ranching, rodeo world - wrangling, packing horses, riding bucking stock, working in hunting camps - but always with the sense that I had to conceal who I was because cowboys could never be gay."

The experience was "extremely, extremely lonely," Mr. Clark said, leaving him feeling so isolated that he more than once contemplated suicide. "I could not accept being gay because of the stereotypes that were drilled into me," he explained. "Gay men are emotionally weak. They are not real men. They are like women."

Like Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist in the film, Mr. Clark dated women for a time, bowing to the pressure to be "normal" although, unlike them, he never married and led a double life. There's a joke out here about how one goes about finding a gay man on the frontier. The punch line is deadpan: "Look for the wife and kids."

Fortunately, Mr. Clark said, "I never did get married, because I never wanted to hurt a woman like that."

"When I was in my 20's, I worked in a hunting camp for three years as a wrangler," Mr. Clark said. "I heard the jokes, but I kept my feelings inside. One of the hunters asked me, 'Have you been married before?' I told him no. And he gave me a look and said, 'Most of the guys who aren't married by now are getting involved with being hairdressers.'"
***

"I know there are a lot of gay guys in Cheyenne, and it's pretty much accepted, in a way," said Julie Tottingham, the manager of Corral West Ranchwear in Cheyenne, the city's largest purveyor of boot-cut Wranglers, ostrich-skin Tony Lamas and broad-brim buffalo-felt Stetsons. "But at the same time, a lot of our customers would be offended if a gay guy was in here shopping," Ms. Tottingham said. "They'd feel it's an insult to the cowboy way of life."

Among the locals who got an opportunity to see "Brokeback Mountain" at the screening in Jackson was Jade Beus, an openly gay former cowboy raised on a sheep ranch in Soda Springs, Idaho. "I had more or less that same experience," said Mr. Beus, referring to the characters' struggles. "Trying to find self-acceptance literally took me to a place where I thought I was such a bad person I once put a pistol to the roof of my mouth."

Mr. Beus, who now owns a heating and plumbing contracting company, is not certain what it was that prevented him from taking his own life. "But something clicked over," he said. "I believe greatly in a higher power and I realized He dealt me this particular hand," Mr. Beus said. "I'm a man's man. I'm not feminine at all. Other people might slander me for who I am, but I made a decision a long time ago that I'm not going through life hating myself because I love men."

Source: Cowboys, Just Like in the Movie, The New York Times,
December 18, 2005

1,042 comments:

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Anonymous said...

actually it drowns every mind in bullshit.

E and J said...

Ennis: poets, we're supposed to love em, not bash 'em.

Jack: what's the matter with you? there's a thousand of them.

Anonymous said...

Oh, Austin. PLEASE, do not give up your day job.

Austin said...

Don't worry, 5:23 PM #2.

I won't give up my day job, poetry or Jake.

How Not to Write a BI said...

This A list actress is more famous for one lucky television role than the truly awful acting she has done in movies. Well, she had a recent breakup. Her publicity machine cranked out every story it could to say she was the one who had done the breaking up with her singer boyfriend. Well, this may be true, but then why would the singer have to change his phone number and e-mail address after she wouldn't stop trying to contact him? When she couldn't reach the singer why would she start calling all of his friends to beg them for his number? What she is telling his friends is that she can't move on without some kind of closure. (CDAN)

Gale said...

Desperate Househunk Gale Harold Returns

A strong Gale force is blowing back through Wisteria Lane—Gale Harold, that is.

Six months after the actor was faced with the offscreen drama that was a serious, intensive care-requiring motorcycle accident, Teri Hatcher's onscreen love interest is set to make his triumphant return to Desperate Housewives on the show's May 3 episode.

An ABC rep revealed the date for the Housewives homecoming, which Marc Cherry himself confirmed to E! News last month. "We are planning to write him in before the end," Cherry said. "We had to wait while he did his recovery, but he will be back." And not a moment too soon, if his once and future leading lady's (unwitting) flirtation with batting for the other team is any indication.

Harold, who underwent brain swelling as a result of his October crash, will reprise his role as housepainter Jackson Braddock. He'll remain at least through the end of the season.

link

Anonymous said...

Welcome back, Gale!

Anonymous said...

Ted's BV said...
Blind Vice: Chillin' Dude Does the Dudes

^^^ I think it's JAMIE FOXX..

Anonymous said...

I didn't know that Jamie has a kid.

Jake said...

I rule!

"Foxx's "Blame IT" video features an all-star cast including Forest Whitaker, Samuel L. Jackson, Ron Howard, Quincy Jones and Jake Gyllenhaal. The single is currently number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100."

Jamie said...

Jamie Foxx mentally exhausted by The Soloist role

Jamie Foxx discussed his fears playing a schizophrenic in The Soloist on Extra. Foxx said, “I was like, ‘Has anyone flipped out trying to play someone flipped out?’” Jamie Foxx tells host Mario Lopez that playing a schizophrenic homeless musician in his new film, The Soloist, was mentally exhausting.

He declares, “When I had to go meet the psychiatrist… I was like ‘Has anyone flipped out trying to play someone flipped out?’ And he was like, ‘You know, the mind is a very interesting thing.’ And I’m like, ‘Man, you’re giving me the creeps!’”

As for working with co-star Robert Downey Jr., Foxx comments, “[Downey is an] incredible man…When I saw him, I said, ‘You’re the biggest star on the set.’ It was just before Iron Man was about to come out. He was like a 10-year-old waiting on Christmas Eve for something good to happen...Do you ever see somebody that’s a whole lot better than you?...I had to every day come in and nail it down.”

When Lopez tells Foxx that he’s a fan of his new single, “Blame It,” Foxx presents Lopez with an offer he can’t refuse! Foxx says, “So, I’m going to ask you right now. You’ve gotta be in one of the videos with me….This is an urban song but I have a feeling it’s going to go pop…” He continues, “…The way I’m making it go pop. I asked Ron Howard, Jake Gyllenhaal, Forest Whitaker, Samuel L Jackson, Quincy Jones, Ashley Scott, Bill Bellamy…Just everybody [to star in video].”

Revealing how he managed to secure his video’s all-star cast, Foxx says, “I was at the Inauguration [and] everybody was on that “feel good thing” watching Barack....”

link

Anonymous said...

"Foxx said, “I was like, ‘Has anyone flipped out trying to play someone flipped out?’”

Gee Jamie didn't you read about what Heath had to say when he played the Joker?

Anonymous said...

Chris doesn't write poetry. Yet.

Skinning a deer hit by the car, raising chicks and cooking class for Adult Continuing Education ... life is good.

Italian Cooking with Island Ingredients

Anonymous said...

Chris has a lovely profile (eviscerating roadkill)

He's much too fine a man for that good for nothing Hell-Ay slut Jake G.

Anonymous said...

Now we know who helped Ennis and Jack prepare the elk.

Anonymous said...

LOL

Jake and Austin said...

They always find something to complain about.

Chris the mountain cook said...

Them cookbooks was hard to pack.

Jack said...

No more beans! I'm in the mood for some Italian cuisine.

Ennis said...

I got a big sausage cannelloni for yer right here, bud.

Nervous Sally Sheep said...

Wish dem fancee boyz go vegitarian.

chris the mountain cook said...

Sheep testicles—called animelles or lamb fries or Brokeback oysters
are mighty fine eating. . .

Sheila-the-sheep said...

I refute the assumption that I have testicles.

Cigar Butt said...

*busy chomping on Chris's cookbooks that have chapters on how to make delicious horses ovaries for elegant and easy entertaining*

city slicker wants to know said...

do rams travel with sheep flocks?

Sheep Flock said...

Not when we have 2 cute cowboys with us, we make sure a that.

Sheep Flock said...

.......that is 2 cute horny cowboys with us. First month we gots lots a action but after that, nuthin. And we hardlys seen the herder neither. We had to party wit the dawgs it gots so damn baaaaaaad.

Ennis said...

Shot a coyote today. Big son of a bitch. Balls on him the size of apples.

Chris said...

I'll pound 'em flat, flour them up, and fry 'em in whatever you got for lard up here, and how about some aioli sauce on the side. . .

Cigar Butt said...

*chews faster*

SHEEP FLOCK said...

For sheepsake don't mention the cilantro patch, and last summer's currygate.

Herder Dogs said...

Jakey LOVES it when fat wandering animals get slaughtered! Jakey LOVES it when fat wandering animals get slaughtered! Jakey LOVES it when fat wandering animals get slaughtered! Jakey LOVES it when fat wandering animals get slaughtered! Jakey LOVES it when fat wandering animals get slaughtered! Jakey LOVES it when fat wandering animals get slaughtered!

that should take care of those lazy ass GPS-challenged sheep.

Anonymous said...

I was re-reading the TT BV items and saw the Cocaine one. I don't know if it's her in these pics but I always wondered what was going on here because it was before Jake took up Reeke. The pics are odd with Jake scratching, looking raunchy and porno-y, the girl, is she a waitress or is it the style of top, the weird body language with Jake looking like he's explaining/making up excuses, she looks like she's pissed and not buying it...I'd love to know if anyone ever heard anything or have any theories about it.

Anonymous said...

Like I said before, Chris Fisher appears to be an extremely sweet, but astonishingly simple man. In fact, sometimes I wonder if he's mentally challenged. First he talks about killing and eating common squirrels, and then he tells us that he's preparing a deer killed by a car, squalid roadkill by any other name? If the guy is trying to make himself completely unemployable by any respectable restaurant, he's certainly succeeding in doing it! Sweet man, but what a moron.

This noble savage turned rustic chef routine is really wearing thin. Well, to paraphrase Blanche Dubois, I guess that Chris is just going to rely upon the kindness of rich friends.

Anonymous said...

No idea what this TMZ thing is for (LOL), a contest? but here's one of Jake and someone.

Papa G said...

Sheep, sheep, sheep,
In deep, deep, sleep
Or deep, deep schtuck!
All is woe, forsooth,

All is muck.

you take that back, roadkill abuser! said...

Like I said before, Chris Fisher appears to be an extremely sweet, but astonishingly simple man. In fact, sometimes I wonder if he's mentally challenged. First he talks about killing and eating common squirrels, and then he tells us that he's preparing a deer killed by a car, squalid roadkill by any other name? If the guy is trying to make himself completely unemployable by any respectable restaurant, he's certainly succeeding in doing it! Sweet man, but what a moron.

No way is Chris a moron! He's the right man for a recession.

A dead deer is a dead deer whether a car's driven over it or it got shot. He eats economically, and salvages what he can in theory showing how in places in the wild food may be hard to come by.

He shows his expertise in only taking what is already dead, rather than going out shooting a deer with calf and leaving an orphan. He's improvising, and that shows a greater skill with food, salvaging any edible parts.

Are you saing if you were desperate and alone in the wild you wouldn't eat roadkill? Honey, you'd be GLAD of it by that time.

If only more people had that kind of skill then they'd be able to survive in the wild if needs be. Chris is the master of "practical food", not "easy couch-potato for the masses food".

I think you're missing the point of what he's doing totally.

Cuntara said...

Shut the fuck up, Stephen!

I've had it up to here with your claptrap! Do you even KNOW what a CEO IS?! *Runs around shrieking and beating fists in air*

It was ME who won you fame, ME who touted your work, ME who stood at the poetry workshop door and gave out free samples of your poetry along with those little cheesy scallop biscuits that everybody got vile stomach ache from, ME who ran Jake Watch, ME who soothed your brow when you know what, ME that shouted your corner, ME that trekked across a continent for you, ME that slipped arsenic into your wife's....oops, oh no wait!

Anonymous said...

OMG 4:06, I wish I could have answered 2:43 as perfectly as you did. Thank you.

Naomi said...

"ME who soothed your brow"


Is that what they're calling it these days?

Naomi said...

A "brow" ?

Jake said...

(((Chris)))

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