WILTON, Calif.—“This town ain’t big enough for the both of us.” So said a California father who was scandalized by a gay rodeo association’s charity event in his rural neighborhood near Sacramento.
Monty Stanley indicated he wants the Capitol Crossroads Gay Rodeo Association tarred, feathered and run out of town after the organization’s “Best Buns” contest, hosted on private property down the street from the Stanley house, exposed his teenage daughter and a handful of her friends to much more than just prime cowboy butt. The men were dancing in nothing more than chaps and jockstraps, Stanley said, and his daughter and her friends could see all the action from the family’s driveway.
Stanley shot video of the Shriners Hospital fundraiser to prove it.
“They had more than best buns,” he told Sacramento television station KCRA. “They had everything out there naked, and you can see it plain as day. What I witnessed there and what you saw on that camera is no different than pornography.”
His daughter was no more impressed.
“I didn’t like it at all,” Roonie Stanley told the TV station’s news crew. “It was uncomfortable for me and my friends to hear, and you could hear it from the house, and we still had a movie on.”
A spokeswoman for the rodeo association said the event obtained both county special-use and liquor permits for the contest, and nothing untoward occurred. Yes, she admitted, the cowboys showed their asses…but that was all they showed.
Because the party was a private event, “We are the ones who would define lewd and lascivious,” event organizer and rodeo association Vice President Janice Gimbel told KCRA. “If I would have seen anything inappropriate, I would have kicked them out myself. We tried our best to make sure there wasn’t any problem.”
However, Gimbel allowed, if neighbors had mentioned to her they found the contest bothersome, she might have been able to reduce the noise level or otherwise address their concerns. She said she believes the rodeo and its fundraiser were called out because of the sexual orientation of the performers.
Stanley denied that suggestion.
“Oh, no—that has nothing to do with it,” he said. “I don’t care if that was a man and lady dancing there naked. You can’t have it.”
In the future, he said, the county should pay more attention to the types of events it approves.
