“A popular activity at country bars everywhere [boot scooting] incorporates intricate steps and confusing turns with popular country music…All involve memorizing an average of thirty-two or thirty-six distinct steps in order and repeating them over and over. The majority are danced individually; that is, no partner is required as all participants form parallel lines across the floor…In order to be accepted out on the dance floor, you have to know the particular requirements of each dance.”

The Bear Book: Readings in the History and Evolution of a Gay Male Subculture

I’m not really sure when ‘queer’ Boot Scootin’ (or Bootscootin’ or Boot Scooting etc) actually began; there’s very little information about it online. What little there is would suggest it began some time in the early 80s (for example, the Dallas Round-Up Saloon began in 1980 and Canberra’s Bushdance Club has been running since 1984.)

And, again on the basis of limited evidence, it doesn’t seem to have been taken up in the UK/Europe at all. Perhaps that’s something to do with its cowboy origins and associations: both the USA and Australia have real cowboys so gay men in ‘cowboy drag’ in those countries don’t look quite as conspicuous as their British counterparts would.

I understand that it was originally developed many years ago by real cowboys out in the ‘real’ Wild West. Short on entertainment – and women – they developed bootscooting (more commonly known as line dancing these days) as a form of dancing that didn’t actually involve physical contact.

Then as our communities began to forge specific identities from the 70s onwards, the cowboy look was one of those embraced. As well as the actual look – boots, stetsons and that sort of thing – the first gay rodeos were held in the 70s. It seemed pretty much inevitable then that ‘cowboy dance’ would also be appropriated.

For my own part, I entered the ranks of the bootscooters in 1988 following an invitation to the Imperial Hotel in Erskineville (better known as the Sydney pub from which Mitzi, Felicia and Bernadette set off in Priscilla: Queen of the Desert.) Every Wednesday night several dozen gay men and a handful of lesbians would gather to dance in formation around the back lounge. As the quote at the start of this post indicates, bootscoot virgins were not permitted on the dance floor until they’d either received some instruction or were accompanied by an experienced ‘scooter.

Thus, every evening began with a run-through of that night’s dances. And then we were off, with a mixture of line dances, group dances and waltzes that went on until about 11 p.m. Some of the participants dressed the part – boots, jeans, checked shirt and Akubra (that’s a sort of Australian stetson) – while others opted for the more neutral ‘smart casual’. I was in the latter:I think I did wear a checked shirt once but poor Cinderella me wasn’t up to forking out for a pair of cowboy boots to be worn once a week.