Here's something you didn't know you'd be reading about today: the rights of grown gay men to put panties on a goat. Some animal-rights activists gathered outside the Powerhouse Bar yesterday to protest a fundraising event for the Gay Rodeo Association, citing such practices as "goat dressing" — a standard rodeo event that involves rustling a goat and putting a pair of underwear on it — as cruel and inhumane. As one rodeo person argues, the goats really don't seem to mind the event too much. "They just sort of stand there."

Also at issue is an event called "chute dogging" in which bulls are dragged to the ground by their heads.

Gay rodeo dates back 35 years or so, and the International Gay Rodeo Association (IGRA) was founded in 1985. (You can see some more of the history here.) Unlike at most rodeo events, gay rodeo has always allowed both women and men to ride the bulls, and, as they put it, "Both men and women, regardless of orientation, ride the same rough stock livestock under the same rules and requirements."

We believe there's a fair amount of rough stock who frequent the Powerhouse on an average weeknight or weekend, but maybe that's not what they're talking about.

Anyway, SFist does not have an official position with regard to goat dressings. But cowboy hats are hot.

[Examiner]