Fortunately, the "dressing" in the goat dressing event is informal -- undies only.

The tall, muscled cowboy in denim and a gimme cap was pushing hard on the steer, trying to get it and its rider across the line in time to place his team in the money. The last hoof crossed the chalked stripe, and the crowd cheered. A few shouts of "Diva!" were mingled in, and the cowboy looked up, a grin creasing his heavy makeup.

His teammate atop the steer waved to the crowd in triumph, with red gloves that matched his red spaghetti-strap ensemble. About that time, however, the unhappy bovine gave a final buck, and rider, dress, gloves, and matching sunhat ended up in the dirt.

That was it for drag-racing that day, time for the tractor -- nicknamed Zambunny for the weekend -- to make another pass around the arena, a stuffed Easter rabbit bobbing cheerfully on the hood.

OK, so it was a different kind of rodeo going on at the W. R. Watt Arena at the Will Rogers Memorial Center March 30-31. Still, you had your boots, your bulls, your broncs, your big belt buckles, tall hats, tight jeans, and some tough competitors. It's just that some of the boys were rodeoing in lipstick and fake eyelashes, and most of the cowgirls preferred cowgirls.

The event was the Texas Gay Rodeo Association's inaugural spring rodeo at the Will Rogers Memorial Center. The Texas association, part of an international group with chapters around the U.S. and Canada, has been operating since 1983. Until this year, the TGRA has held one rodeo a year, in the fall, the site rotating among Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, and Fort Worth. The spring rodeo will be held annually in North Texas, with the fall event staying south.

"Most of the competitors are rodeoers who happen to be gay and can come here and be themselves," explained state president Charley Lanier of Dallas. While few TGRA members have the money or skills to compete professionally, he said, "We do have members who have PRCA [Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association] cards or PBR [Professional Bull Riders] cards. They do rodeo in straight rodeos," he said -- but usually are not openly gay in those decidedly macho situations. Other competitors are lured by events that are usually open only to one gender: In the TGRA, men can barrel-race, and women can rope and ride rough stock.

As assistant rodeo director Jim Gadient put it, "Bubbaville dies hard in Texas." For gay folks growing up on farms and ranches and in small towns, he said, TGRA events provide a place to be openly gay. Others -- "imported city folk," Gadient said -- join because TGRA is a nonprofit organization that has raised more than $2 million through the years for HIV and AIDS charities and other causes.

The city-folk quotient may explain why -- other than the sheer fun of it -- the drag race is such a popular event. More than half of all TGRA competitors get their start in the drag race or one of the other two "camp" events -- goat dressing and steer decorating. Drag race teams include a man, a woman, and a person of either sex in drag. One person holds the 25-foot lead rope attached to a wild steer. When the chute opens, the team does its best to get the steer across a line 70 feet away. Once the animal is over the line, the "drag" hops aboard. The drag has to stay on board -- or get back on board as many times as it takes -- until the team gets back across another line 30 feet away.

The scene at Watt Arena during the TGRA competition was two parts country fair and three parts city party. In traditional events, some competitors were obviously highly skilled. But in general, the skill and sophistication levels made it seem more like a high-school rodeo. The exhibits area included new pickup trucks to admire, a stand selling beef jerky, and one that sold bracelets and earrings under the name of "Family Jewels." Wares available at a t-shirt booth ranged from innocuous depictions of multi-colored boots to shirts bearing ads for a fictitious rodeo -- "When an eight-second ride is not enough." Among the mostly male crowds near the entrance, the jeans were no tighter and the chaps no flashier than at the Stock Show Rodeo -- but one competitor's teddy-bear backpack might have stood out.

Down on the arena floor, most rodeo fans would have recognized the bunting and Budweiser banners, but maybe not the gay-bar flags in the grand entry. And before the horseback portion of the grand entry, various Gay Rodeo Association chapters walked the ring, male, female, and drag competitors arm in arm or hand in hand, behind their groups' banners. Many wore sashes with adornments showing their honors and titles, including Mr., Ms., and Miss (for drag) TGRA -- kind of a different twist on rodeo queens. The announcer gushed like most rodeo announcers. When a longtime TGRA official was honored, he cooed, "Oh my, they're gonna sash her."

Gadient and Lanier said TGRA events usually don't draw much attention or opposition from anti-gay groups. But militant vegetarians don't like them.

"We have more trouble with PETA [People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals] protestors," Lanier said. "They don't understand how well we treat our animals." TGRA rules include a written statement on animal welfare, he said, and some traditional events, such as steer wrestling and calf roping, are excluded in part because they are tougher on the animals involved. Instead, TGRA rodeos include an event called "chute dogging," in which competitors, from a standing start on the ground (rather than with the added momentum of jumping from a galloping horse), try to wrestle steers down. Roping events are done either on foot or with breakaway ropes.

The TGRA leaders said a longstanding relationship with its stock contractor, Mike Perschbacher of Bar M Rodeo Co. of Purcell, Okla., helps ensure the good treatment of animals.

Perschbacher has raised rodeo stock most of his life, and he's proud of it. And he's just as happy about his association with TGRA.

If he'd come to a gay rodeo 15 years ago, Perschbacher said, "I'd have been one of those out here mocking these people -- 'damn queer sons of bucks.' But times have changed." He brings his family to the TGRA events, including his 6-year-old daughter, who rode with him in the grand entry.

"I don't believe in men with men and women with women. But I'm sure I'll do some things today that Jim [Gadient] wouldn't agree with," he said. "The last time I looked in that book [the Bible] that sits up on my dashboard and that I kiss every day, it says, 'Thou shalt not judge.'

"If a bunch of straight cowboys from cowboy country can come to a gay rodeo and put it on and have fun, there shouldn't be any wars," he said. "Now some of my dearest friends are gay. I'd go anywhere with Jim here -- well, almost anywhere."

Most other rodeos, he said, are such serious business that "it's like life and death. ... You're worrying minute by minute. Here, the competition's great. But we have fun."

Perschbacher said he has noticed one other difference from straight rodeos -- TGRA participants tend to drive nicer rigs. Gadient embroidered on that. The women drive big pickups, he said, and the men have the little imports. The drags, presumably, go either way.