Why do gay men talk the way they do

Why do some gay men “sound” gay? After three years of research, linguistics professors Henry Rogers and Ron Smyth may be on the verge of answering that question. After identifying phonetic characteristics that seem to make a man’s voice sound lgbtq+, their best hunch is that some gay men may subconsciously adopt certain female speech patterns. They want to know how men acquire this way of speaking, and why – especially when community so often stigmatizes those with gay-sounding voices.

Rogers and Smyth are also exploring the stereotypes that homosexual men sound effeminate and are recognized by the way they speak. They asked people to hear to recordings of 25 men, 17 of them gay. In 62 per cent of the cases the listeners identified the sexual orientation of the speakers correctly. Perhaps fewer than half of same-sex attracted men sound gay, says Rogers.

The straightest-sounding voice in the study was in fact a gay guy, and the sixth gayest-sounding voice was a linear man.

Gay VOICE is a thing: You can tell a man is homosexual from the way they chat, say scientists

High pitched, extended vowels and incredibly articulated: so-called 'gay voice' is a real phenomenon, researchers say.

Two science YouTubers contain scoured studies behind the theory that homosexual men have a unique twang that transcends aspects favor culture and upbringing.

Mitch Moffit, a biologist, and Greg Brown, a science instructor — who are both gay — explored what exactly constitutes a 'gay voice' and what might cause it.

In a clip uploaded to their channel, AsapSCIENCE, earlier this year the pair looked at study dating back to the early 90s.

They found that analysis comparing the pitch of straight and queer men's voices found key differences in how they speak.

High pitched, extended vowels and incredibly articulated, so-called 'gay voice' is a real phenomenon, researchers declare. Stock image

Mr Moffit explained: 'Results discover that gay men say with higher pitch variation meaning that their range from low to tall is much more excessive than straight men.'

Mr Brown added: 'Gay men were also found to own longer vowel durations for "a", "i", and "u" — they hold t

Is there a ‘gay voice’? Why this student's controversial thesis went so viral

Is there such a thing as a "gay voice"? And if so, what constitutes it?

A linguistics pupil at the University of Oxford recently investigated this topic for her undergraduate thesis − and went viral in the process.

When Erin Broadhurst explained her thesis in a TikTok video interview on Oxford's campus, she became a viral sensation, getting over 8 million views, 1 million likes and thousands of comments from people curious about the controversial, and complicated, intersection of language, gender and sexuality.

Broadhurst says this intersection − an area of academia known as "lavender linguistics" − is one she's been passionate about for a while. It's also one that, she believes, warrants more research.

Given the massive response online to her thesis, it's transparent others feel similarly.

"As a bisexual girl myself, I was interested in the queer side of linguistics," Broadhurst says. "Whether we are correct or not, we do form impressions of people's sexuality from their voices. But what is it within their voices that we are thinking sounds 'gay'?"

'A tiny piece in a large puzzle'

Prior resea

Have you ever read The Caucasian Chalk Circle? Don’t. It’s really boring. A leaden, joyless, ferociously unsubtle play about communism that I was forced to read when I was 15. It’s low on laughs, to say the least. But it was a part of my drama class, and I enjoyed acting, so I tried to get on board with it. I read it in advance. And, as the class started, I asked the teacher if I could play one of the farmers in it.

There was a pause. I could see an thought forming in her thought. Here – she idea – here’s a teachable moment. She gathered the entire class into a circle, with me and her at its centre. And she demonstrated to the room why I could never play a farmer.

Farmers, she explained, walk in a certain way: shoulders forward, slouching posture, heavy stride (looking back, I wonder if she’d only ever seen farmers with club feet). Next, she did my walk. Pelvis out, shoulders back, hips swishing from side to side. I believe she even threw in a limp wrist for good measure. Sadly, she concluded, the way I walked was too “poetic”, and I’d never make a convincing farmer. We all knew she meant: I have a gay walk.

Aside from the glaring question that this