Gay Rodeo Documentary, "Rainbow Rodeo," Wins Webby Award

A new documentary charting the history of Reno, Nevada’s gay rodeo has won a Webby Award. Created by journalism students Emily MacDiarmid, Carly Sauvageau, and Bree Zender, “Rainbow Rodeo” won the People’s Voice Award in the student video category.

“I learned about gay rodeos from a local LGBTQ+ historian,” Zender told Nevada Today following the filmmaker’s victory. “I am bisexual, and I grew in a rural community where rodeos are a part of the local culture. I think just even knowing there was such a thing as a gay rodeo would have helped me learn to accept myself.”

Organized by local activist Phil Ragsdale, the first Reno gay rodeo was held on October 2, 1976. More than 125 folks participated in the festivities, with winners being crowned as “King of the Cowboys,” “Queen of the Cowgirls,” and “Miss Dusty Spurs” (a drag award). Ragsdale’s gay rodeo would grow over the next couple of years into an annual event and fundraiser, and soon would attract tens of thousands of spectators, along with consistent press coverage. By 1984, however, the worsening AIDS crisis plus threats of homophobic violence put an end to the beloved event.

Emily MacDiarmid, who co-directed the film with Zender, noted that what drew her to the subject was “the opportunity to tell stories that defy the stereotypes surrounding the LGBTQ+ community and the rodeo,” she said. “As a Reno local, it was also a topic that impacted various people throughout the city and was a piece of history that wasn’t often discussed.”

Though the Reno version of the gay rodeo ended in the mid-1980s, similar events can be found across the country to this day. That said, according to the International Gay Rodeo Association, all future sanctioned events have been postponed until 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Webbys bills itself as the “leading international award honoring excellence on the internet.”

You can watch “Rainbow Rodeo” in its entirety here.

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