*homosexual* cowboys

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- "Brokeback Mountain," a movie about a love affair between two male cowboys, has provoked a debate about whether there actually were *homosexual* cowboys.

Former world champion bull rider Ted Nuce told the Modesto (Calif.) Bee he never knew any, either on the ranch or during his 16 years on the rodeo circuit.

"And I know a lot of people, too," he said.

Ace Berry, who went to the National Finals Rodeo 14 times from 1962 to 1989, told the newspaper Hollywood is imposing its agenda on the mainstream with the movie.

"Hollywood will do anything," he said.

Author Patricia Nell Warren says there were such cowboys. And, just as in "Brokeback Mountain," they needed to be discreet.

Warren, a Montana native whose 1974 *homosexual*-themed novel "The Front Runner" has sold more than 10 million copies in 10 languages, said the cowboy labor pool in the Old West included a lot of drifters who earned low wages and had little prospect of marrying and raising a family.

"Sometimes two men lived and traveled together as 'partners,'" she said. "As long as they did their job and were discreet, most people pretended like they didn't know what was going on."

The only people who think there were/are no homosexual cowboys are the same idiots that think there are no homosexuals in the NFL/MLB/NBA/NHL.

Us **edited**s are everywhere - get used to it.