Filmmaker And Speech Pathologist Weigh In On What It Means To 'Sound Gay' : NPR

THE GAY VOICE

A glossary of gay slang monly ed pop culture wh fns and exampl. We fe words ed by gay people such as sickeng, sha, werk, ki ki, tea and more! Once you know what the words your gay vobulary will be fierce! So get readg hunty and go to werk! * gayest sounding language *

Why do some gay men “sound” gay? After intifyg phoic characteristics that seem to make a man’s voice sound gay, their bt hunch is that some gay men may subnscly adopt certa female speech patterns.

They want to know how men acquire this manner of speakg, and why – pecially when society so often stigmatiz those wh gay-soundg voic. Rogers and Smyth are also explorg the stereotyp that gay men sound effemate and are regnized by the way they speak. They asked people to listen to rerdgs of 25 men, 17 of them gay.

GAY SLANG 101

* gayest sounding language *

Perhaps fewer than half of gay men sound gay, says Rogers. The straightt-soundg voice the study was fact a gay man, and the sixth gayt-soundg voice was a straight man.

Only sce the begng of the 20th century has queer been ed to refer to people who intify as gay or lbian. Is "homosexual" still e? The standard fn of homosexual is “a person sexually attracted to people of one’s own sex.

WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’

Rudolf P. Gd, Soundg Gay: Pch Properti the Speech of Gay and Straight Men, Amerin Speech, Vol. 69, No. 1 (Sprg, 1994), pp. 30-57 * gayest sounding language *

” But, ’s typilly applied to men, and lbian is the term for a female homosexual.

GLAAD prefers that we don’t e the term homosexual bee ’s “aggrsively ed by anti-gay extremists to suggt that gay people are somehow diseased or psychologilly/emotnally disorred.

Bee suggts that beg lbian, gay, bisexual, or of another sexual orientatn is a choice and the person n be “cured. It’s not a gay liftyle.