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At the Gay Rodeo, Pride isn't reserved for winners
That's the print title.
Online:
Love and marriage at the gay rodeo
By Roman Stubbs July 5 at 8:18 PM
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Before they faced each other in competition on the final afternoon of their first rodeo in three years, Louis Varnado and Andy Pittman found a quiet place to settle their horses in a long corridor underneath New Holland Arena. The married couple from Upper Marlboro shared a kiss and whispered good luck to each other before lining up with the other riders.
...
When Varnado, 63, heard his name called first, he couldn’t get his sorrel, Assured Cause, to budge toward the gate. A small crowd quietly waited. A rodeo director screamed, “Next rider!” Pittman dismounted from his own horse and grabbed the reins of Assured Cause, urgently leading Varnado to the edge of the arena’s soil to begin the run.
Varnado responded with one of his best times of the weekend, perfectly weaving around the poles in the largely empty arena while a Keith Urban song blared over the speakers. A few minutes later, when Pittman, 58, got back onto his 14-year-old palomino named Lance, he beat his husband’s time. Pittman pumped his fist and adjusted his tan cowboy hat as he returned to the gate underneath the stadium. A group of cowboys that he hadn’t seen in years greeted him there to celebrate. Varnado gave his husband a thumbs-up.
This was the kind of moment that Varnado and Pittman longed for when they arrived late last month at the inaugural Keystone State Gay Rodeo, the first gay rodeo in the region in at least seven years. They had been bonded by horses for much of their 34 years together, and like so many other gay cowboys who feared they would not be accepted by straight rodeo circuits, Varnado and Pittman began competing in gay rodeos nearly two decades ago because it gave them a growing, accepting community.
....
Roman Stubbs covers the University of Maryland athletics for The Washington Post. Follow @romanstubbs
By Roman Stubbs July 5 at 8:18 PM
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Before they faced each other in competition on the final afternoon of their first rodeo in three years, Louis Varnado and Andy Pittman found a quiet place to settle their horses in a long corridor underneath New Holland Arena. The married couple from Upper Marlboro shared a kiss and whispered good luck to each other before lining up with the other riders.
...
When Varnado, 63, heard his name called first, he couldn’t get his sorrel, Assured Cause, to budge toward the gate. A small crowd quietly waited. A rodeo director screamed, “Next rider!” Pittman dismounted from his own horse and grabbed the reins of Assured Cause, urgently leading Varnado to the edge of the arena’s soil to begin the run.
Varnado responded with one of his best times of the weekend, perfectly weaving around the poles in the largely empty arena while a Keith Urban song blared over the speakers. A few minutes later, when Pittman, 58, got back onto his 14-year-old palomino named Lance, he beat his husband’s time. Pittman pumped his fist and adjusted his tan cowboy hat as he returned to the gate underneath the stadium. A group of cowboys that he hadn’t seen in years greeted him there to celebrate. Varnado gave his husband a thumbs-up.
This was the kind of moment that Varnado and Pittman longed for when they arrived late last month at the inaugural Keystone State Gay Rodeo, the first gay rodeo in the region in at least seven years. They had been bonded by horses for much of their 34 years together, and like so many other gay cowboys who feared they would not be accepted by straight rodeo circuits, Varnado and Pittman began competing in gay rodeos nearly two decades ago because it gave them a growing, accepting community.
....
Roman Stubbs covers the University of Maryland athletics for The Washington Post. Follow @romanstubbs
The International Gay Rodeo Association