Cowboys was made during the twilight of Donald Trumpâs presidency, which saw the dialling back of health protections for trans people and a military ban, since overturned by Joe Biden. Right-wing commentators during the Trump era dedicated many hours to mocking transgender people, with trans kids being weaponised as evidence that the âtrans agendaâ has gone âtoo farâ, and that children are incapable of identifying as anything other than their assigned gender at birth.
In this context, Anna Kerriganâs Cowboys â in which Troy (Steve Zahn) goes on the run with his young trans son Joe (Sasha Knight) through rural Montana, a solid Republican state â stands as a forceful bid for tolerance and acceptance. The two males hope to cross over to Canada, a migration many Americans pledged to make following the election of Donald Trump in 2016, seeing the country as a liberal haven compared to the bigotry associated with Trumpism. Flashbacks show how Troy and his wife Sally (Jillian Bell) reacted in very different ways when Joe came out as trans.