As early as 1980, Christian protestors marched against the parade outside the fairground fence on Wells Avenue. Conservative BacklashĪs popularity of the National Reno Gay Rodeo increased, so did conservative backlash in the state. In 1985, the International Gay Rodeo Association was founded, and the phenomenon of gay rodeo became a rich part of gay culture in the U. Inspired by what was happening in ordinarily conservative Nevada, gay rodeo associations were founded in Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, California, Arizona, Kansas, Missouri, New Mexico, Oregon, and Wyoming. The event became known as the National Reno Gay Rodeo, sponsored by the Comstock Gay Rodeo Association, and over the next several years drew larger and larger crowds and raised tens of thousands of dollars for such charities as the Muscular Dystrophy Foundation, Nevada Services to the Blind, and the Veterans Administration hospital in Reno. Even though only 150 people attended, the rodeo drew attention from gay communities throughout the West. Early the next morning, the first Reno Gay Rodeo opened with five cows, ten calves, and one Shetland pony. The auction managers referred Ragsdale to a local rancher who provided the animals and Ragsdale drove back to Reno at 10 o'clock the night before the rodeo was scheduled. Determined to buy cows and calves himself for the event, Phil drove 60 miles to Fallon only to discover the weekly livestock auction was held on Wednesdays. On Friday, October 1, 1976, with the rodeo scheduled the next day, Ragsdale still had no livestock. In the months prior to that date, Ragsdale tried renting livestock for the rodeo from Reno area farmers and ranchers, but when he admitted the event was being sponsored by the Reno gay community, every farmer and rancher he approached-nearly three dozen of them-refused to rent their animals. Ragsdale approached the Washoe County Fairgrounds manager and the earliest date the facility was available was October 2, 1976. In 1975, Phil Ragsdale, who was Emperor I of the Silver Dollar Court in Reno, conceived of a gay rodeo as a fundraising effort for the Court.
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