Then, of course, there are plenty of queer country artists at our fingertips too: Lil Nas X, Orville Peck, Alison Russell, Brandi Carlile, Katie Pruitt, Trixie Mattell, Joy Oladokun…I could keep on listing my whole playlist.
“The cowboy icon exists for everyone around the world,” says Sean. “It doesn’t belong to one culture. It comes from here [the US], but then it becomes a tool for connecting and socialising and country music becomes something that binds people together in a certain kind of activity.”
There’s no doubt that cowboy culture has endless appeal for queers – but more specifically, why does line dancing itself appeal so much?
“It’s incredibly addictive, learning dancing,” says Elli, a regular who has been going since the first session. “I think that enthusiasm is very infectious in the community.”
“I have a theory,” says Nessie, with a smile. “There’s something quite vulnerable about learning choreography and doing it all together, knowing that people are there and you’re trying to keep up. I think queer people have a bit of an upper hand when it comes to embracing and finding the excitement in that vulnerability. I think queer people, due to a kind of comfort with not fitting in and knowing that people around us don’t need us to do that, have more room to explore how we want to dance, to explore messing up and making mistakes.”
It doesn’t matter how many mistakes you make; that eventual feeling of being in lockstep with the whole room is indescribable. I like to think you can hear the sound of boots stomping in chorus from out in the street, but I’m so involved in dancing I’m not going to drag myself outside to check. Distracted for a second, I lose focus and find myself turning to face the wrong wall, nose-to-nose with someone in the row behind me. We laugh, reset, and carry on.
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