Do you sound gay? What our voic tell – and what they don’t | David Shariatmadari | The Guardian

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH MAJOR U.S. PRO LEAGUE TO E OUT AS GAY

People wh stereotypilly high-pched or ‘mp’ voic n fd people assumg that they’re gay, acrdg to one Amerin film-maker - even if they aren’t. Likewise, men wh ep voic n fd themselv wrongly assumed to be beg straight. * why don't i sound gay *

Michael Sam beme the first openly gay player to be drafted when the then-St.

Filmmaker David Thorpe (middle) explor whether there's such a thg as a "gay voice. In the wake of a bad breakup, journalist and gay activist David Thorpe did what many of do: He took tense ventory of his own flaws and securi, then stepped up one of them to a Thg. A good Thg, as turns out, whose end rult is the charmg documentary Do I Sound Gay?, which Thorpe wryly treats his anxieti about his "gay" voice as an exercise self-improvement, and wds up wh a pellg portra of ternalized homophobia and liberatn.

THIS IS WHY SOME MEN ‘SOUND GAY’ – EVEN IF THEY’RE NOT

In a new documentary, a gay man tri to change the sound of his voice and wonrs why, exactly, he thks he should. * why don't i sound gay *

Thorpe adms that gog , he was "repelled" by a speech style that mak gay men sound like "brayg nni. Back South Carola's Bible Belt, where Thorpe grew up, relativ and childhood iends pot out that he didn't sound gay until he me out of the closet llege. Friends wh his tight-kn gay circle are more divid: Some nfs to hatg their lispg, anoidal voic; others own gayspeak wh varyg gre of fiance and jubilatn.

A DOCUMENTARIAN WONRS: 'DO I SOUND GAY?'

* why don't i sound gay *

Thorpe brgs lguists to ttify that there's ltle evince to support the argument that gay speech is nate. The explanatn that pleas him most is that gay speech has s origs ls blogy or nro-chemistry than early female fluence: Men who grow up mostly around women tend to mimic feme speech styl — which, Thorpe argu, would expla why some straight men sound gay, and why gays who grow up wh brothers often velop basso profundos. Do I Sound Gay?

"DO I SOUND GAY?"

Is very good on the way many gay men who were bullied as children have learned to turn the hatred of others ward, which helps expla s of gay hyper-masculy and ternal ostracism of effemate men.

Takg his cue om the swellg ranks of gay celebri (among them Gee Takei, Margaret Cho and the effably funny and ndid David Sedaris) who are willg to speak on mera about liberatg themselv om their own fears, Thorpe realiz he's been askg the wrong qutns.