Every July, I find myself with mixed feelings about the Calgary Stampede.
As a kid, I loved it. I remember the excitement of the parade, free pancake breakfasts, and the feeling that, for ten days, Calgary became a little more joyful and a lot less predictable.
As a historian, though, I also know the Stampede is more complicated than the nostalgia. It’s a carefully crafted story about Calgary and the West—one that celebrates some histories while overlooking others.
Maybe that’s why I keep returning to it.
This month at The Confluence, I’ll be diving into the Stampede’s surprising queer history: the thousands of images of impossibly handsome cowboys, ranch hands, rodeo athletes, and almost naked “beefcakes” that fed into 1950s and 1960s physique photography. They were meant to celebrate rugged western masculinity, but they were also creating the network for a nascent North American gay community.
Join me on Thursday, July 16, for How the West Got Shirtless: Beefcakes, the Stampede, and Queerness. We’ll look at vintage photographs, postcards, and moving images to explore how queer people found themselves reflected in the Calgary Stampede.
History, conversation, a few surprises—and pancakes for dinner.
I hope to see you there.
🎟️ Tickets: https://www.theconfluence.ca/events/hdht-july2026
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Calgary Gay History 