# Gays: Whats up with the accent? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 6, 2002, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gays-whats-up-with-the-accent/112611 "2002-06-06T04:18:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2002, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gays-whats-up-with-the-accent/112611/61 "2002-06-07T00:16:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by erislover \* > \*\*How are playing card companies queer, **gobear**? \*\* Not the companies, you silly person, the _cards_. One out of every 13 or so is a queen. Which is a bit below the general populace - what, with the whole 1-in-10 thing - so maybe it’s not that good an analogy ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2002, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gays-whats-up-with-the-accent/112611/62 "2002-06-07T03:41:15Z")
Thtop it. This is tho _thilly_! ---
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2002, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gays-whats-up-with-the-accent/112611/63 "2002-06-07T03:53:41Z")
“fucktarded”? BWAHAHAHAHA! This is my new favorite word! Re: Christopher Lowell - I just love him to pieces. Every time I see him, I think “THIS! THIS is why I became a fag hag!” ---
**Author:** ![Com2Kid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@Com2Kid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Com2Kid)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2002, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gays-whats-up-with-the-accent/112611/64 "2002-06-07T04:07:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Polycarp \* > Since then every time she has returned to the South and hears people talking in one of the Southern accents (there are several) she naturally falls back into her Jacksonville drawl. I have this awful habit of falling into the mode of speech that is used in whatever literature I am reading at the moment. I am 99.99% unintelligible when reading Jo Clayton. 😃 😃 😃 > [@](#): > > the use of “camp speech” What is camp speech? I mean it is artificial, but obviously so are purposely faked humorous english accents. What exactly are the definable properties of this mode of speech, what are some of the common descriptors used for it? I have heard about a ‘lilt’ at the end of sentences, a lilt is a happy way of speech, does this lilt at the end of a sentence refer to a raising of the speakers for in pitch, or does it refer to some other interpretation of the same definition? (I do not know at all about the various speech studies, I only learned a few months ago that people in different parts of the words ‘reflect’ their voices off of different parts of their throat and that this is what causes various types of accents amongst speakers even after all other common causes of an accent have been removed) Weird stuff. 🙂 Especially strange considering that I was taught \how to\ control my voice but never taught /why/ it is that I can do the various things with it. Kind of strange, the information was pounded into me at a young enough age and in such a way that I never thought of a ‘why’ to it, voices just kind of always have been I guess. I mean why am I able to project my voice and fill up an auditorium? (Microphones are for wimps, heh) Why it is that yelling does not cause this same effect? Why does my voice go to shit when I try to /sing/ loudly but I am able to hold a tune just so long as I am whispering it just below anything resembling audible threshold? Weird weird world, LOL. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2002, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gays-whats-up-with-the-accent/112611/65 "2002-06-07T04:37:25Z")
> [@](#): > > What is camp speech? For pity’s sake, man, if you don’t know what it is, how can you be complaining about it? ---
**Author:** ![Com2Kid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@Com2Kid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Com2Kid)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2002, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gays-whats-up-with-the-accent/112611/66 "2002-06-07T04:51:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by matt\_mcl \* > \*\* > > For pity’s sake, man, if you don’t know what it is, how can you be complaining about it? \*\* ::groans:: The TERM, the TERM. Yeesh. [Dictionary.com](http://Dictionary.com) gives it as being any humrious or artifical form of speech. How did it come to be associated with what I am terming as being 'the gay accent." ? ---
**Author:** ![Diane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2acd7d/32.png) [@Diane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diane)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2002, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gays-whats-up-with-the-accent/112611/67 "2002-06-07T13:29:54Z")
So, Christopher Lowell isn’t gay? :eek: Really? ---
**Author:** ![Esprix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprix/32/7899_2.png) [@Esprix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprix)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2002, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gays-whats-up-with-the-accent/112611/68 "2002-06-07T16:42:35Z")
That’s the official party line. IIRC, he’s married with kids. Esprix ---
**Author:** ![sidle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee59a6/32.png) [@sidle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sidle)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2002, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gays-whats-up-with-the-accent/112611/69 "2002-06-07T17:10:09Z")
Sure. Again, no monkeys flying out of my arse… Actually, though, I did see him on Letterman, and he spoke without the camp accent, and, IIRC, explained that he concocted the image in order to create a niche for himself in the TV market. Gay or no, it sure worked! ---
**Author:** ![Tiburon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e36b37/32.png) [@Tiburon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tiburon)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2002, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gays-whats-up-with-the-accent/112611/70 "2002-06-07T18:14:48Z")
I would have bet my last dollar that Christopher Lowell was gay. Of course, being married with kids doesn’t mean he isn’t but I understand the mention. Dude. I’m amazed. This brings up an interesting story…my mother works at Williams-Sonoma in downtown Chicago. I went there to pick her up to go to lunch and she introduced me to this guy who works with her. After we left, she said, “He’s A GAY! Could you tell?? I couldn’t tell when I met him!” I said, “…uh…mom…what kind of man do you think works at Williams-Sonoma?” (I know, I know, stereotype, I’m sorry.) She said, scolding me, “_That’s not true! Besides, this is just his second job - he’s an interior designer._” Oooookee doke, mom. Tibs. ---
**Author:** ![OxyMoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e9a140/32.png) [@OxyMoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OxyMoron)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2002, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gays-whats-up-with-the-accent/112611/71 "2002-06-07T19:11:55Z")
The gay/camp accent is described as “theatrical,” which suggests its origin and its potential demise. In America, lots and lots of gay boys do go into theatre, which was one of the few areas generally accepting of homodom. (My response to hearing about these newfangled gay student clubs some high schools now have: “What, have they no drama club? No show choir?”) One of the side effects of having even a little bit of theatre training is hyperawareness of your voice, and of enunciation. Greater experience tends to knock both of those traits out of you (reciting a few “What a to-do’s” in front of a match helps) - but since many gay boys never become professionals, they become stuck at this slightly pretentious, assibiliant stage (would you care to repeat that, Mr. Lynde?). For life. As more young homos are able to focus their energies in other fields, the accent may well disappear. ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2002, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gays-whats-up-with-the-accent/112611/72 "2002-06-08T11:51:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Esprix \* > That’s the official party line. IIRC, he’s married with kids. Not to rock the boat or anything, but wasn’t Martina Navratilova married with kids when she came out as well? Several of my friends have been in the same situation. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2002, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gays-whats-up-with-the-accent/112611/73 "2002-06-08T14:13:36Z")
> [@](#): > > That’s the official party line. IIRC, he’s married with kids So was Oscar Wilde, not to mention any number of guys at the baths on a Saturday night. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2002, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gays-whats-up-with-the-accent/112611/74 "2002-06-08T15:08:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by iampunha \* > \*\*Several of my friends have been in the same situation. \*\* ::raises hand:: Me and my wife both. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Lao](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@Dr.Lao](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Lao)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2002, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gays-whats-up-with-the-accent/112611/75 "2002-06-08T21:07:24Z")
Although, if Christopher Lowell actually is gay, hosting a show on interior design while speaking with an extremely camp accent is not the best way to stay in the closet. ---
**Author:** ![Esprix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprix/32/7899_2.png) [@Esprix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprix)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2002, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gays-whats-up-with-the-accent/112611/76 "2002-06-10T16:08:33Z")
OK, I didn’t say that having a wife and kids made you straight - I said that, AFAIK, the official party line is that he is heterosexual. In addition to this, and possibly unrelated (or not), AFAIK he has a wife and kids. Please do not preach to the **Gay Guy** about married homosexuals. Thank you. Esprix ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2002, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gays-whats-up-with-the-accent/112611/77 "2002-06-10T16:33:03Z")
Would also depend on the sex of the spouse, **Esprix**. And in a blatant semi-hijack, I have a quote for you, from the Rev. Canon Gray Temple, Rector of St. Andrews Episcopal Church in Atlanta, GA (and a leading liberal scholar), as part of a dialogue on sexuality in Christianity presented recently in Maryland: > [@](#): > > Scripture express[es] a distinct preference for the restriction of sexual activity to marriage, but, it seems to me, to insist that marriage by its definition has to be heterosexual is to reduce the status of marriage to where we say the shell is more interesting than the peanut. If marriage is to be distinguished by its sexual gender constituency, then in effect we’re in a position as silly as Roman Catholics, who say marriage is primarily for the purpose of procreation, which reduces it to animal behavior, and rules out the spiritual. FWIW, here you have a mainstream church leader speaking strongly for gay marriage. ---
**Author:** ![Esprix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprix/32/7899_2.png) [@Esprix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprix)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2002, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gays-whats-up-with-the-accent/112611/78 "2002-06-10T16:59:47Z")
I said no preaching! Bad **Polycarp**! No pulpit! _{hits **Polycarp** on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper}_ Esprix [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gays-whats-up-with-the-accent/112611.md?page=3)