Queering the Cowboy And Other American Institutions

“Cowboys are frequently secretly fond of each other”, or so Ned Sublette sang back in 1981. Although Sublette himself was straight, the song is purported to be inspired by gay cowboy iconography of the seventies (think Tom of Finland and the Village People). In the years since, the song’s taken on a wonderfully queer second life, covered by Willie Nelson in 2006 for the soundtrack of Brokeback Mountain, that most quintessential of gay cowboy movies, and, more recently, by Orville Peck.