He notes the traditional cowboy had four failings: drinking, gambling, lechery and violence. “To tamper with the image of a folk hero, a historic formula, a legend, and most of all, that of the American cowboy heritage is probably more dangerous than the proverbial where ‘fools rush in,’” Westermeier writes. Westermeier noted any examination of sexual activity by cowboys-homosexual or not-was such a cautious topic, his article in the 1975 Red River Valley Historical Review was titled “Cowboy Sexuality: A Historical No-No?”
