A Straight Year on the Gay Rodeo

Filmmaker Matt Livadary set out to create a documentary on the "badass country folk and iron-clad American values" of the rodeo world. He wound up finding it with the International Gay Rodeo Association.

Livadary, who is straight, said his year on the gay rodeo circuit was eye-opening.

"My experience on this film has shown me that no matter how open-minded we might consider ourselves, we can all use more exposure to lifestyles and cultures that differ from our own," he wrote as part of a Kickstarter campaign to help raise the money needed to complete the documentary, which he's titled Queens & Cowboys: A Straight Year on the Gay Rodeo.

So far more than 100 backers have pledged about $11,000 toward the $35,000 that Livadary needs to launch. That ought to be encouraging.

But no matter how it turns out, Livadary has a long list of favorite moments and images. In the following pages, the Los Angeles director shares his first-person account of what it was like to follow the gay rodeo and what made him conclude that IRGA is "one of those rare organizations that make you want to be a better person." — Lucas Grindley