Utah

The Utah Gay Rodeo Association’s multiday “Crossroads of the West” regional rodeo in Ogden last weekend featured all the same trappings as a “traditional” rodeo. Similar competitions. Similar outfits — jeans, crisp button-up shirts, cowboy hats. The groomed dirt and manure gave off the same earthy, stinky-sweet scent.

But mixed with nostalgia for rodeo, a pastime many here lost or felt ostracized from after coming out, these competitors and spectators also felt a sense of belonging and relief to be among their people — folks who wouldn’t judge them for their boots or blue jeans, who knew the words to and could be brought to quiet tears by a Garth Brooks song, who grew up with more horses than neighbors. All either queer themselves, or welcoming if you were.