The Gay Voice - Universy of Toronto Magaze

Contents:

• TWO-FACED THAILAND: THE UGLY SI OF 'ASIA’S GAY CAPAL'
• THE BTER TTH BEHD THAILAND'S GAY-IENDLY IMAGE
• THE GAY VOICE
• THIS IS WHY SOME MEN ‘SOUND GAY’ – EVEN IF THEY’RE NOT
• WHAT'S THE LK BETWEEN HOMOSEXUALY AND HAVG A 'GAY VOICE'
• WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’
• A DOCUMENTARIAN WONRS: 'DO I SOUND GAY?'
• "DO I SOUND GAY?"
• FILMMAKER AND SPEECH PATHOLOGIST WEIGH IN ON WHAT IT MEANS TO 'SOUND GAY'

TWO-FACED THAILAND: THE UGLY SI OF 'ASIA’S GAY CAPAL'

This was backed up wh historil evince where durg the 1700s there was a huge unrground gay and trans movement. The prence of Boys Love seri, a unique drama genre that picts homoerotic relatnships between male characters, has creased signifintly recent years. It was probably the first time Thai entertament history that two boys wh homosexual clatns were featured the lead.

Thai Boys Love is a lol appropriatn of yaoi, the Japan-origatg form of homoerotic fictn that revolv around the romantic narrativ between a mascule boy (lled “e”) and a more feme boy (lled “seme”). Uta Boonorana, a medil doctor who’s also an LGBTQ fictn thor known by his psdonyms, Patrick Rangsimant and Mor Tood (“Homo Doctor” Thai). He’s also the md behd GMMTV’s LGBTQ productns, many of which have been praised for their plex and thought-provokg narrativ, cludg Gay OK Bangkok.

But for most outsirs, this is a si of Thailand -- a untry sometim lled “the gay pal of Asia” -- that is rarely seen. Thailand has been marketg self recent years as a “pk” tourist statn, a untry iendly to queer travelers seekg everythg om gay go-go bars to bety pageants featurg trans women (known Thailand as “kathoey” or “ladyboys”. )And the strategy seems to be year, foreigners scend on Bangkok’s gay bars drov, and many flock to the untry’s clics to unrgo genr nfirmatn activists say this queer-iendly image is only sk ep.

THE BTER TTH BEHD THAILAND'S GAY-IENDLY IMAGE

“There is a quote [that says] that Thai society unofficially accepts, but officially rejects, gay and lbian people, ” Anjana Suvarnananda, print of LGBT rights group Anjaree, told Phet News 2013. “I thk ’s te that Thai people n only accept gay and lbian people superficial ways, such as the way they act or drs. ” A recent study nducted by the Khon Thai Foundatn found that more than 50 percent of Thais between 15 and 24 believe “homosexualy is wrong.

”LGBT activists say, however, that the new law, though very posive, is but a small step forward for the are still no laws or polici place protectg LGBT people on the grounds of sexual orientatn Thailand, which crimalized homosexualy the 1950s. Speakg to the Bangkok Post, activist Naiyana Supapung relled a se of a gay child who tried to kill himself by drkg sectici after he was “huiated by a teacher who had orred him to stop speakg and actg like a girl.

Chakgai Jermkwan and his partner Sean L’Estrange -own the popular venue, which is loted on a narrow soi led wh gay bars.

THE GAY VOICE

Thailand wel lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr (LGBT) visors: s tourism thory targets the LGBT market, and Bangkok is often the only Asian cy clud on lists of gay-iendly tourist statns around the world. Among Thais between 15 and 24 years old, 56 per cent thk homosexualy is wrong, acrdg to recent rearch by Khon Thai Foundatn, a non-prof anisatn.

By parison, more than 70 per cent of young people Japan, South Korea, the Philipp and wtern European untri thk that homosexualy should be accepted by society at large, acrdg to the Pew Rearch Centre, an Amerin thk-tank. In a untry where nearly 95 per cent of people are Buddhists, many believe that gay or transgenr people suffer om bad karma for mtg adultery their past liv. “I fd surprisg that Thailand, beg one of the most gay-iendly untri [for foreigners], do not have laws that support and protect the LGBT muny, ” says L’Estrange, an Irish-Amerin who has lived here for almost 10 years.

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

Although a partnership bill has been drafted and will be submted to Parliament, gay rights activists have ncerns about .

The Anjaree Group, Thailand’s largt lbian and gay rights activist anisatn, has cricised the bill for not grantg homosexual upl the same rights as their heterosexual unterparts. “There are no openly gay people high-rankg offic who n fluence the change both law and attu, ” says Suppakorn Chudabala, a gay rights rearcher.

WHAT'S THE LK BETWEEN HOMOSEXUALY AND HAVG A 'GAY VOICE'

“The first step advotg for LGBT rights is to te people that beg homosexual or transsexual is not wrong, ” Suppakorn says. 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.

The straightt-soundg voice the study was fact a gay man, and the sixth gayt-soundg voice was a straight man. I don't want to offend anyone wh this qutn but seems like gay people (pecially men) some tim have a certa tonaly to their voice that is siar to other gay guys. Sorry if I sound homophobic or some sh, I am really not, but that's jt a qutn that crossed my md and I n't thk of a reasonable explanatn.

WHAT MEANS TO ‘SOUND GAY’

I lived Thailand for a long time and durg my study Thailand I changed schools many tim most of the 30-40 percent of my classmat were all gay but that wasn't a problem bee LGBTQ+ are they are all good-hearted people., but there is a qutn that has always puzzled me:Why do Thailand have so many gay men?

Stay ahead of the trend fashn and beyond wh our ee weekly Liftyle Ed newsletterStay ahead of the trend fashn and beyond wh our ee weekly Liftyle Ed newsletter After a particularly bad break-up, David Thorpe, a journalist who’s his forti, cid to take his md off thgs by leavg his ts his Manhattan apartment and drowng his sorrows at a gay beach town on Fire Island. “I knew then that I had to get to the bottom of that feelg and to the importance of the voice as part of gay inty. ”It was the start of a four-year journey of self-disvery durg which Thorpe tried to figure out his so-lled “gay voice”: when did he start talkg that way, what ed , how exactly did sound, and, fally, what was so wrong wh anyway?

The rults n be seen his new documentary, Do I Sound Gay?, which featur terviews wh lguists, amics, fay and iends, as well as a number of high-profile personali, cludg David Sedaris and Dan Savage. Another expert that he terviews for the film is a Canadian lguist who studi vol microvariatns between gay and straight men and speculat that many gay men more readily pick up speech s om women. Intertgly, a straight iend of Thorpe’s has what is nsired to be an archetypal “gay voice” and turns that out he was raised entirely by women at an ashram.

A DOCUMENTARIAN WONRS: 'DO I SOUND GAY?'

When he was younger, Thorpe not, the only “gay voic” on televisn were those belongg to figur such as Liberace and Charl Nelson Reilly, the host of The Match Game. He also wonrs if Disney villas such as Aladd’s Jafar and The Ln Kg’s Sr, wh their soft, threateng voic, have ma young people associate soundg gay wh beg evil. It pleas him to hear so many more “gay voic” reprented today, pecially young vloggers such as Lohanthony and Tyler Oakley.

“Growg up, I was always told that what was wrong wh me was that I was gay, so ’s not hard to unrstand that a moment of vulnerabily I might also feel secure about my sexualy. As Dan Savage, the activist who found the It Gets Better mpaign, says the film: “What’s wrong wh soundg like you are who you are – a gay man?

” It’s a fascatg and nuanced film, which the filmmaker, David Thorpe,  his feelgs about his voice to look at attus toward homosexualy. It rais a plited discsn about gay pri, lgerg homophobia, disguised misogyny, and the extent to which we all alter the image that we prent to the the film begs, Thorpe is disturbed bee he realiz he don’t like his voice any more.

"DO I SOUND GAY?"

He rri out thoughtful nversatns wh his iends and proment gay and lbian figur – cludg Gee Takei, David Sedaris, Dan Savage, Margaret Cho and Don Lemon – about what means to “sound gay.

But so dog, v everyone to thk about what their own voice says about who they are, where they me om, and where they want to science of “the gay voice”To start wh, the stereotypil “gay voice” isn’t necsarily a study published 2003, Ron Smyth, a lguist at the Universy of Toronto, found that participants readily separated rerdgs of 25 diverse voic to those who “sound gay” and those who “sound straight. ” People picked up on featur of the gay stereotype – voic that were higher and more melod were more often labeled "gay. In Smyth's study, people rrectly gused a man’s sexualy about 60 percent of the time, only a ltle better than another small study at the Universy of Hawaii, both gay and straight listeners were equally as likely to misclassify people as gay or straight.

FILMMAKER AND SPEECH PATHOLOGIST WEIGH IN ON WHAT IT MEANS TO 'SOUND GAY'

In fact, the straight men wh so-lled gay voic weren't aware that people thought they sound gay at turns out that what most people perceive as a stereotypil "gay voice" is jt a male voice that sounds more stereotypilly feme -- maly, higher pched and more melod.