Want to Get Rid of Your 'Gay Accent'? There's an App for That

Contents:

• FILMMAKER AND SPEECH PATHOLOGIST WEIGH IN ON WHAT IT MEANS TO 'SOUND GAY'
• WANT TO GET RID OF YOUR 'GAY ACCENT'? THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT
• “GAY” VOICE

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

In Do I Sound Gay?, Thorpe search for the orig of the "gay voice" stereotype. Is there such a thg as a "gay voice"?

For gay filmmaker David Thorpe, the answer to that qutn is plited. "There is no such thg as a fundamentally gay voice, " Thorpe tells Frh Air's Terry Gross. " In his new film, Do I Sound Gay?, Thorpe search for the orig of that stereotype and documents his own attempts to sound "ls gay" by workg wh speech pathologist San Sank.

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

"David was the first person who me to me who was upont right om the begng about soundg gay and what he wanted to do, " Sank tells Gross.

"I've always been self-nsc about soundg gay, " Thorpe adds. " Thorpe scrib the gay voice as one characterized by a sibilant S and a high pch. "When I terview people, " Thorpe says, "they always say that to them the gay voice...

" Interview Highlights On beg self-nsc about soundg gay Thorpe: I grew up the '80s, which was a ls acceptg time for LGBT people. And as Dan Savage says the movie, effemate kids, whether they are gay or straight, get persecuted for, kd of, how they walk and how they talk.... On where the "gay sound" om Thorpe: If I have to speculate about where the so-lled gay voice om, for me, both the most predomant answers work.

“GAY” VOICE

I always had a lot of female iends growg up and I don't thk that's atypil for some gay men. At the same time, I totally get that when I me out, I wanted to be regnized as gay; I wanted the world to know I was gay and I wanted to f to this existg muny, so I thk my voice really did change after I me out. What I took om San was more an easy way of speakg and an abily to speak thentilly rather than changg my style to sound ls gay.