Jags' Maxen is first male Amerin pro sports ach to e out as gay - ESPN

Contents:

• WHAT'S THE LK BETWEEN HOMOSEXUALY AND HAVG A 'GAY VOICE'
• IS THERE A “GAY VOICE”?
• JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH COACH COM OUT AS GAY IN A FIRST FOR U.S.-BASED PRO LEAGU
• JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS' KEV MAXEN FIRST MALE PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY
• JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY
• WANT TO GET RID OF YOUR 'GAY ACCENT'? THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT

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

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. On the Friday-night tra journey he found himself surround by loud chatterg gay men.

“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.

A high-pched, lispg voice that go up at the end has been part of the gay male stereotype for years. 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.

IS THERE A “GAY VOICE”?

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 iend suggts that he was “advertisg” his homosexualy, havg kept a secret for so long.

JAGUARS ASSOCIATE STRENGTH COACH COM OUT AS GAY IN A FIRST FOR U.S.-BASED PRO LEAGU

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.

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS' KEV MAXEN FIRST MALE PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY

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?

JAGS' MAXEN IS FIRST MALE AMERIN PRO SPORTS ACH TO E OUT AS GAY

He sounds gay. 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. 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.

He even asks people on the street if they thk he sounds gay. 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.

WANT TO GET RID OF YOUR 'GAY ACCENT'? THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT

The world’s homophobia be ternalized homophobia.

Even wh the gay datg muny (and gay porn), hyper-masculy is habually prized, so self-disgt gets easily turned back outward.