Girls Just Want to Have Fun

The Denver Cycle Sluts celebrate 25 years in the Queen City.

A A A Comments By Laura Bond Thursday, Oct 14 2004

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Westman believes camp drag doesn't draw young people like it used to, when gay males needed an overt outlet to shake off some of the confines of the closet. Modern drag performers tend to go for glam, not ham, which means the Cycle Slut talent pool is narrowing. Everyone seems to want to be a pretty girl, not a class clown.

"It might have been easier to hide behind drag when it wasn't cool to be gay," Westman says. "People are growing up more open-minded and embracing diversity. You've got metrosexuals and other straight people who just want to go where people are having fun. And there's more diversity of entertainment in the gay community. You've got hiking clubs, scooter clubs. And people can just go to straight bars."

John Johnston

Bill Wright gives praise.

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That's all well and good for the gay youth of today. But what about the future of the Cycle Sluts? Could the city of Denver really have exhausted its supply of wild, wig-wearing wannabe she-women?

"It's always been an evolving group, with a number of looks and feels," Betsch says. "In the early days, it was real trashy. There was no glitter. Some of them didn't have real facial hair, so they'd use painted fabric as mustaches. Who knows? We're having an amazing response from the straight community now. Maybe some of them will come over. You just never know."