Is There a “Gay Voice”? | The New Yorker

Contents:

• A DOCUMENTARIAN WONRS: 'DO I SOUND GAY?'
• IS THERE A “GAY VOICE”?
• FILMMAKER AND SPEECH PATHOLOGIST WEIGH IN ON WHAT IT MEANS TO 'SOUND GAY'
• Q&A: IS THERE A ‘GAY VOICE’? DIRECTOR DAVID THORPE ON HIS OUTFT DOCUMENTARY
• FILMMAKER DAVID THORPE DISCS HIS NEW DOCUMENTARY THAT EXPLOR THE ‘GAY VOICE’ PHENOMENON
• WHAT'S THE LK BETWEEN HOMOSEXUALY AND HAVG A 'GAY VOICE'

A DOCUMENTARIAN WONRS: 'DO I SOUND GAY?'

Before Sean Penn played the charismatic, martyred gay polician a dramatized film, we got to see the real Harvey Milk this documentary om director Rob Epste. Director Marlon Riggs chronicled the experienc of Black gay men this 1989 documentary, wrten by Joseph Beam, Essex Hemphill, and Chris Harris.

IS THERE A “GAY VOICE”?

The team of Rob Epste and Jefey Friedman me up wh another important documentary 1996's The Celluloid Closet, based on the classic book by Vo Rso and explorg how Hollywood has portrayed homosexualy. "Hollywood, that great maker of myths, tght straight people what to thk about gays and gay people what to thk about themselv, " says narrator Lily Toml. In an era when right-wgers are phg "don't say gay" polici schools, this documentary om 1996 remas as timely as ever.

Vo Rso was a pneer of the morn gay rights movement, a film enthiast wh encyclopedic knowledge, and a key player ACT UP. He had strong opns on uture but was hard to p down about his sexual inty; he's been scribed as gay, bisexual, or fluid, but he exprsed disda for labels. In 1973 at the Upstairs Lounge New Orleans, an arson fire took the liv of 32 people, mostly gay men.

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

The btal murr of gay llege stunt Matthew Shepard 1998 was a hate crime that shocked the world. Bowers says he fixed Kathare Hepburn up wh 150 women and that her supposed love affair wh Spencer Tracy was a ver for the gay tennci of both.

The San Francis Gay Men's Chos went on a journey of renciliatn at a divisive time -- durg the 2016 printial mpaign -- tourg the Deep South, nsired hostile terrory by many LGBTQ+ people. 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.

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.

Q&A: IS THERE A ‘GAY VOICE’? DIRECTOR DAVID THORPE ON HIS OUTFT DOCUMENTARY

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. 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.

FILMMAKER DAVID THORPE DISCS HIS NEW DOCUMENTARY THAT EXPLOR THE ‘GAY VOICE’ PHENOMENON

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. While he was by tryg to iron out his gay voice, New York State legalized gay marriage, and the film's release jt weeks after the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage across the natn.

Not long after Thorpe broke up wh his boyiend, he began thkg about the way he speaks, and the way other gay men speak, and why both sudnly bothered him so much. ”This is how he scrib the moment his documentary “Do I Sound Gay?, ” which opens this weekend at the IFC Center.

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

He terviews gay public figur, cludg David Sedaris, Tim Gunn, Don Lemon, and Gee Takei, who have had to listen to themselv for a livg. Gay adolcents, Thorpe pots out, often learn that the “tell” of their sexualy is their voic, even more so than physily—a limp wrist is easier to straighten out than an flectn.