An unrelated thing

Seeking diversity of topics for this blog, I just had a scroll through this year's Archives of Sexual Behaviour.   As you do.   I see that someone has studied something I had noticed in about 1985 when sharing an office with a gay guy who could not, at the time, be openly gay and keep his job.   Everyone assumed, correctly, that he was gay anyway - they just didn't say it openly at the workplace.  Now, I have mentioned this story before, but it became clear to me that the "gay voice" became much more distinct when he took a call from one of his friends.  I told him, as it was not exactly in his interest for his sexuality to be too widely known in the organisation, and he honestly did not realise he was doing so.   Anyway, onto the abstract:

Listeners rely on vocal features when guessing others’ sexual orientation. What is less clear is whether speakers modulate their voice to emphasize or to conceal their sexual orientation. We hypothesized that gay individuals adapt their voices to the social context, either emphasizing or disguising their sexual orientation. In Study 1 (n = 20 speakers, n = 383 Italian listeners and n = 373 British listeners), using a simulated conversation paradigm, we found that gay speakers modulated their voices depending on the interlocutor, sounding more gay when speaking to a person with whom they have had an easy (vs. difficult or no) coming out. Although straight speakers were always clearly perceived as heterosexual, their voice perception also varied depending on the interlocutor. Study 2 (n = 14 speakers and n = 309 listeners), comparing the voices of young YouTubers before and after their public coming out, showed a voice modulation as a function of coming out. The voices of gay YouTubers sounded more gay after coming out, whereas those of age-matched straight control male speakers sounded increasingly heterosexual over time. Combining experimental and archival methods, this research suggests that gay speakers modulate their voices flexibly depending on their relation with the interlocutor and as a consequence of their public coming out.

So, evidence after all of these years that it was not just my imagination.