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Smith’s face lights up, portending another interjection. “There are a lot of people on the property at night, after the rodeo, and there can be some. This tends to serve as a breeding ground for hair-raising situations. Gadient says a lot of contestants bring their own living quarters trailer to competitions. “Asshole,” Smith cuts in, laughing so loudly that the table vibrates. “I rode bulls in high school and I was also the rodeo. Hood starts talking about his early rodeo origins. He and Smith have a 19-year-old daughter they’ve raised together since she was born. He looks every part the cowboy, with his rodeo hat and huge belt buckle, and carries a thick drawl. Everyone calls him “Boogie.” To say Hood is the quieter of the two is like saying an atom is small. I can tell you want dirt.” tweet this Next to Smith sits his longtime partner, Marcus Hood, who’s the president of the Dallas chapter of TGRA. “Tessie” is his drag name, but the monogram on his TGRA shirt says Tim. It’s as though his baseline demeanor is a pot of water the second before it reaches the boiling point. When you’re in his presence, there’s an awareness that he’s fighting the urge to burst into song, dance or some other heightened emotional state.
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In addition to being the statewide president of the TGRA, Smith is also a professional florist. “Which he doesn’t stay in most of the time,” Smith, the silver-haired gentleman sitting to his right, says. He owned more than 60 pairs of cowboy boots before he even moved to Dallas. Ostensibly that’s the reason people call him Jinglin’ Jim. Back in his rowdier days, he’d wear them while cavorting up and down Cedar Springs Road in broad daylight. Perhaps this is how he owns more than 400 pairs of spurs. He used to be an interior designer but retired at age 38. The relationship fizzled within six months, but the boyfriend introduced Gadient to the gay rodeo scene. He came here to follow a boyfriend who claimed to be a native Texan (“Turns out he was Louisiana swamp trash,” he says). Gadient moved to Dallas from Chicago in 1989. “I always had that dream of wanting to be involved in the Western lifestyle," he says. And Mae because, “Every drag queen needs a middle name.” He grew up watching Saturday morning Westerns. A friend told him he was “bright like a star.” At the time, David Bowie’s song “Ziggy Stardust” was popular in the gay clubs. He’s had the same drag name since he was 17. You know what they say about rodeos? This ain’t their first one.Īt 6-foot-3 and 240 pounds, Jim “Stella Mae Stardust” Gadient is a sight to behold. We establish from the get-go that nothing is off limits. Smith says he was at Round-Up the night of the fire, but doesn’t remember if he was wearing his pumps or his cowboy boots.įor this meeting, the cowboys have brought themselves a cowgirl, too.
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Within days the bar had relocated to a temporary location at Tex’s Ranch on Maple Avenue and they began to rebuild at the original location. All that remained were three chandeliers and the front door. In 1989, one week before competitor Jim Gadient moved to Dallas, a six-alarm fire (later determined to be arson) destroyed Round-Up. Before they bought Round-Up in 1998, owners Gary Miller and Alan Pierce both held officer positions within the organization.
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The bar has long had a symbiotic relationship with TGRA. Tim Smith, the statewide president of the Texas Gay Rodeo Association, says its original name was “Magnolia Thunderpussies,” which at the time of this writing could not be verified. It has been around in one incarnation or another since 1980. The site of the meetup is the Round-Up Saloon, Oak Lawn’s landmark gay country and western bar. It’s a Sunday afternoon and three overlords of the Texas Gay Rodeo Association, which is exactly what it sounds like, have congregated to drink about “A Texas Tradition,” their annual charity rodeo this weekend in Denton.