On the range, some ranch hands get kicks
Cow-poking dudes and not chicks,
But rump wranglers ain’t queer,
‘Cause on the western frontier,
It ain’t gay, unless you touch dicks.
See also this limerick’s Tush Trilogy companion pieces:
Read The Closet Professor’s article “Gays and the Old West”, which explains that cowboys were themselves often homophobic, had heterosexual relationships unaffected by their “mutual solace” out on the prairie, and, apparently, were “quite without the argot, physical manifestations and other affectations often found in urban groups.” Argot means the jargon or slang of a particular group or class. In other words, cowboys who engaged in homosexual acts may not have even considered themselves gay per se and did not share the “gayspeak” and other culturally distinctive characteristics of their city slicker counterparts.
