Queer West

How the West Was Fabulous

By: Brenna Farrell, Zakiya Gibbons, Ellen Horne

Narrated by: Niecy Nash-Betts

Stories of the American West often rely on tired tropes of tough cowboys, but real history is much less straight and narrow and way more interesting. Join host Niecy Nash-Betts for a wild round-up of LGBTQ+ lives that got buried in the dust of popular culture and history and take a look at how queer people continue to shape the West today–from gay rodeos to two-spirit identity to trans truckers.

Episode 1: "Welcome, Y'all!"

Saddle up and get ready to make some lifestyle choices! Host Niecy Nash-Betts introduces herself and the series–explaining how folks like her, a Black Hollywood star who’s married to a woman, find power in sorting out their place in the American West by bucking the typical stereotypes. From John Wayne to Lil Nas X, dressing the part has always been part of the package in coming to terms with a complicated history.

Episode 2: "Oklahomos!"

The musical Oklahoma! is a saga of the plains often performed as a high school musical and presented as an American Classic. But the man behind its creation–a gay Cherokee playwright named Lynn Riggs–is barely known today. We get to know Lynn Riggs, who mined the yearning in old cowboy songs to express himself, and ended up revealing the spiritual connections between the West, musicals, and queer identity.

Episode 3: "The Man in Lavender"

Country cred is a confusing mix of cheesy marketing and hard-to-put-your-finger-on-it authenticity. And that leaves a lot of room for country music to speak to tons of queerdos and fans from all walks of life. Back in 1973, a real-deal outlaw musician named Patrick Haggerty gave the finger to all the rules in Nashville and made the first gay country album–breaking a mold that, decades later, still needs remaking.

Episode 4: "Calamity Jane"

Calamity Jane–whose name became shorthand for gender-bendy nonconformity in the old West–was a legend in her own time, and remains a puzzle in ours. But in 1953, when homosexuality was illegal in every state, Doris Day brought her to life in a very queer film with a hit song that echoed off the walls of gay bars for decades.

Episode 5: "A Gay Utopia in Alpine County"

In 1970, an earnest vision to create a gay utopia took on a life of its own—by turns a prank, a punchline, a valid plan, and a source of panic for right-wing pundits. We’ll look at how a proposal to take over a small town in the Sierra Nevadas became a national story that forever changed how the media covered gay and lesbian people.

Episode 6: "Deborah’s Mission"

Mission-style has come to be part of California’s vibe...from architecture to burritos. But two-spirit writer Deborah Miranda is flipping the picture of California’s missions, and helping us to see California’s real history. As a California Indian whose sexuality is deeply tied to her understanding of herself and her community, Deborah’s story about finding her ancestors and finding her truth is the work of a lifetime.

Episode 7: "Old Mrs. Nash"

This is a story about how queer stories get erased from the history of the West, and why. At the very moment that new ideas about sexuality (and the words hetero and homosexual) were gaining ground in America, there was a huge freak-out happening about “the death of the frontier”. The ways these ideas collided in a battle about American identity show the power of questioning whose history matters. And this reflects the way we see not just the past but our current moment and future. One powerful example: Old Mrs. Nash (no relation to Niecy!), a Mexican laundress for General Custer in the 1870s.

Episode 8: "Gay Rodeo"

In the 1980s, the rodeo became a lifeline for queer folks to cowboy up and be themselves out West. Gay men, especially, found a place to be country and be out and proud at a time when that could cost them everything. Then, when the AIDS crisis hit, gay rodeo became a life-saving community, a place to stare down the odds and cheer each other on. But can an organization confronting the myths of a bygone past find a way to honor its own history without that getting in the way of moving into the future?

Episode 9: "Concrete Cowboys"

Are cowboys...passé? Take ‘em or leave ‘em, we can’t seem to quit ‘em. One form of modern-day cowboy is the trucker–or concrete cowboy. We meet a Black lesbian trucker who finds solace in a kind of cowboy code of ethics and explore how modern queer and trans truckers find freedom in being lone wolves on the open road. But independence can be a double-edged sword for drivers who are trying to be both themselves and stay safe. Our series ends out on the open road, reflecting on the many ways queerness embodies the myths and ideals of America itself: bold, brave, authentic, system-bucking, and always changing.

©2024 Story Mechanics LLC (P)2024 Audible Originals, LLC.

Great!

I'm a fan of Niecy Nash so when I saw she narrated this I decided to check this out. Great touching stories. It was eye opening, educational but overall entertaining and enjoyable! if you're a fan of history or pop culture it is definitely worth a listen.

Enter Stagecoach Left

A deeper dive of the lesbian, transgender and gay foundations of the old West through to present day. done with heart, honesty, humor and many voices.

Made me proud to be gay

Excellently produced. I thought I’d get bored, my “Western Phase” being long past, but I never was. Necy was an A+ narrator, picking up the pace and anticipating my own questions. They should make more podcasts!

A fun and serious story telling

I like that Neicey Nash-Betts hosted this series. She brought her own fabulousness to the tail and made it magnificent. Also, this is a very timely walk-through a history that might otherwise disappear.

To see oneself in a story of the renegade hero is priceless.

I have been the truck driving queer and thought that perhaps that was a problem. I got a more “respectable life” and the core of me is missing. If I had known there were queers out there…life would have gone differently. Thank you for letting me see myself in this story and not as part of the problem.

Really Fun, Engaging, & New Info

I really enjoyed this a lot. Love Niecy Nash-Betts! Some history was already familiar, but most of it was all new to me, so that was fun. My one critique is that I personally hate that high pitched cowboy yell in the intro; it’s so obnoxious. Maybe if it had been made to sound less loud or more distant, so it wasn’t so shrill/in your face? Other than that, this is a fun ride. 😊

so much info!!

I learned so much about topics I'd never considered before and am now wanting to research more of. thank you for telling these stories.

Wonderful!

Great voice - I could listen to this woman read a phone book and enjoy it. Much better, though, to hear these great stories.

Great History - Perfect Host

An excellent journey through a spaces and cultures we often think of as opposed to queerness. Some of the featured people & interviewees I was already familiar with, but there were still plenty of surprises and amazing stories. Niecy Nash-Betts is an amazing host: warm, excited, and so relatable as she delivers real talk about real queers in Wests of all kinds.

Funny and enlightening

Great listen. The stories and the narration were wonderful. I only wish they had more episodes.