Intimate man-to-man relationships have existed through the ages. From the early Greeks and Romans, to the present, and the American Southwest as it was settled during the past century was no exception.
Hollywood has created a romantic view of life in the Old West that unfortunately doesn’t tell the story as it really was. There were few women who were both unmarried and respectable as the west was being settled.
Thus close relationships between the stalwart men who tamed the sprawling miles of desert and prairies quickly developed. A man felt safer if he knew he could count on a good friend to back him up.
It was only natural that those relationships included moments of close sexual passion, never discussed but still an important part of the lives of the men involved.
As towns sprang up and “respectable” people moved in, however, they began to frown on such ties, much as busybodies in many communities today meddle in others’ lives.