TGRA Rodeo Director Boogie Hood, left, and TGRA State President Tim Smith are ready to rodeo. (Tammye Nash/Dallas Voice)

Tammye Nash | Managing Editor
nash@dallasvoice.com
The Texas Gay Rodeo Association is moving uptown (so to speak) this year as the members get ready to stage their 35th annual Texas Tradition Rodeo this weekend at the 5,500-seat Resistol Arena, home of the Mesquite Pro Rodeo.
Tickets are $10 per person per day, available at the gate.
Rodeo weekend began Thursday night with the TGRA Royalty competitions at Sue Ellen’s, and continues today (Friday, April 6) with horse check-in beginning at 8 a.m. and contestant/volunteer registration from 5-8 p.m., both at the arena. Barrel racing exhibition rides start at 3 p.m. at the arena, and the Texas Slide Barrel Racing Competition begins at 7 p.m.
The competition gets underway in earnest at 8 a.m. Saturday with calf roping on foot, followed by steer decorating, mounted roping, team roping and steer riding.
The Grand Entry steps off at noon, and is followed by what Rodeo Director (and TGRA-Dallas Chapter President) Boogie Hood calls “the spectator events:” ranch saddle bronc riding, chute-dogging, pole bending, goat dressing, barrel racing, flag racing, the wild drag race — then finishing up with the granddaddy of rodeo sports, the bull riding. Saturday night at 7 p.m., there will be a TGRA fundraising event at The Hidden Door, and on Sunday night, at the end of competition, awards will be presented at the arena.
Throughout the weekend, there will be a wide range of vendors on hand and entertainment in the 8 Second Club all day both Saturday and Sunday. Prism Health representatives will also be on hand to offer free HIV testing.
Ranch Hand Rescue, an animal rescue and rehabilitation organization with its headquarters in Denton and a facility in Argyle, is one of the rodeo beneficiaries, as is a new safe house for young men who have been victims of sexual abuse. That facility, Smith said, is only the second of it kind in the nation. Ranch Hand Rescue will also have a presence at the rodeo.
Hood and TGRA State President Tim Smith — who also happens to be Hood’s partner of 18 years — said that while the 35th annual rodeo has all the old favorites, TGRA is ever-growing and evolving. The “ranch saddle bronc riding” is one example.
It is, Smith explained, a new event — added last year to the TGRA lineup — designed to be more “flashy” and to ramp up the excitement in the crowd.
In the traditional bareback and saddle bronc riding competitions, the rider can only use one hand to hold on to the “rigging;” if their free hand touched the horse in any way, the rider was disqualified. But “ranch” saddle bronc riding has no such restriction. Riders can use both hands to hold on and to encourage the horse to bigger, better bucking. They also often spread colored powder over the horse’s rump that will spray into the air as the animal moves and bucks.
“It’s an up-and-coming event in all the rodeos, including mainstream, that’s been approved by the [International Gay Rodeo Association] for our events. Last year was the first time we had ranch saddle bronc riding,” Smith said. “It’s just a lot more showy and a whole lot of fun for the audience to watch.”
TGRA, like other LGBT-focused rodeo organizations as well as mainstream “western lifestyle” organizations and events, has been struggling to draw in the younger generation, Smith said. “But,” he added, “we are finding new and better ways to do that.”
In 2015, TGRA held its rodeo at the Fair Park rodeo arena, because the site originally intended — Texas Horse Park at the Trinity — wasn’t yet finished. But the next year moved to the Horse Park — and the event lost money.
So in 2017, TGRA took a large leap of faith and headed north, holding last year’s event at the Diamond T Arena in Denton, despite the dire warnings that a gay rodeo wouldn’t be welcome in that more rural setting.
Instead, Smith said, TGRA was welcomed with open arms.
“At first, we didn’t know how it would go over. But the locals — oh my god! They were wonderful! The support and the sponsorships we got from the community there, the straight community — it was just amazing,” Smith said. “The Juicy Pig [a barbecue restaurant in the middle of town] came to us asking if they could sponsor us. Everything was sponsored — all the buckles, everything.
“It opened our eyes to marketing in a new and different way,” he continued, saying that the LGBT-focused organization learned a lot about finding support in the mainstream community. So when TGRA officials learned this year that the Diamond T would no longer be available — that it had planned to hold the rodeo there again this year — they decided to go big. That’s how the Texas Traditions Rodeo ended up at one of the most famous rodeo arenas in the state.
“The Mesquite arena has been great,” Smith said, explaining that TGRA gets proceeds from ticket sales, concession stand sales and beer sales this year, and it’s the beer sales that help bring in the profit. Those attending will have to pay for parking, and that money doesn’t go to TGRA, “because they already have a contract with someone to handle parking,” he explained.
Smith also noted that the IGRA Finals rodeo for this year will also be held at Mesquite’s Resistol Arena.
Smith said that TGRA — like other LGBT and mainstream “western lifestyle” organizations — has struggled in recent years to get younger people involved and active. “We’ve been selling an old product in old ways,” he said. “Now we are creating new product and marketing it in new ways. It’s been a big challenge, and we have struggled trying to reach a new and different crowd. But we are doing it.”
TGRA now uses social media more extensively to get word out, and “we hold rodeo schools, where the seasoned cowboys and cowgirls teach classes and give hands-on instruction to newcomers,” he said.
He explained that the Red River Rodeo Association — a contestant focused LGBT rodeo organization in Texas — helps TGRA in holding the rodeo schools.
Smith and Hood also said that they hope TGRA’s commitment to community service will also draw in new members who care about helping and promoting the LGBT community.
“That’s how we got started back in the 1980s, after all,” Smith said. “We were trying to raise money to help people with AIDS.”
He explained that each of the five TGRA chapters — Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Austin and San Antonio — hold fundraising events all year to help pay for the state rodeo. Then the state rodeo takes all of its proceeds and distributes the money back to the local chapters.
“The idea is to be able to get enough sponsorships and to bring in enough money that we can send all the money each chapter raises back to them, plus some,” Smith said. “Then the local chapters distribute that money to the beneficiaries they have chosen in their city.”
The state rodeo gives other nonprofits a chance to raise money for themselves: Different organizations staff beer booths and concessions at the rodeo, and while the money from the sale of the food and drink goes to TGRA, those staffing the booths get to keep their tips for their own organizations.
“Community service has always been a very important part of our mission,” Smith continued. “Back in the day we would go out in our whites [the white dress shirts embroidered with the TGRA logo] to help out at events. And we have always been a big part of the Pride celebration in Dallas. We help out with the parade, and we man the beer booths. That’s always been one of our biggest fundraisers for the rodeo.”
And, Smith and Hood stressed, you don’t have to be a seasoned cowboy or cowgirl to be a TGRA member.
“You don’t even have to know how to ride a horse. You can learn at rodeo school, if you want, but you don’t have to,” Smith said.
“There’s room for everyone in TGRA.”
TGRA annual dues are $25/person. For information on how to join, visit TGRA.org.