Chapter 6: Describing and Perceiving Sexual Orientation Based on Linguistic Cues: At the Crossroads of Bilingualism and Language Acquisition

Anyone who has seen television shows with gay characters (e.g., Will & Grace’s Jack McFarland and Will Truman; Ugly Betty’s Marc St. James) has been exposed to how gay speech is portrayed in the media—exaggerated as it may or may not be. Perhaps it is obvious immediately upon hearing Jack and Marc speak that they are gay, but what makes this so apparent if they don’t overtly say, “hey, we’re gay!” Is it their pronunciation of certain sounds? Do they use particular words that straight men would never say? Do they have higher-pitched voices that resemble a woman’s? Or is their discourse simply pragmatically different from straight men? Furthermore, what makes their speech more gay-sounding than Will’s? I can remember a while back, a friend who commented on Jack said to me, “as soon as he opens his mouth, bundles of Gucci bags fall out.” Laughing at his comment, yet intrigued by the linguistic cues making him so sure Jack was gay, I asked him, “but how do you know that without knowing the storyline of the show?” His response was, “you can just hear it in his voice.” Obviously, this answer did not help solve the mystery of being able to perceive sexual orientation by merely hearing someone speak. This obscurity has been puzzling researchers for several decades.