Gay people ask if you can hear them now.
“Do I Sound Gay” is a rather intriguing documentary by David Thorpe as he tries to study his sexually oriented linguistics. Specifically, where the gay lisp and other hallmarks of “sounding gay” originates. Interviewing prominent gay figures like George Takei, Tim Gunn and Margaret Cho, Thorpe tries to make sense of how his language has changed an adult gay male. Can cultural baggage truly change your speech and self-esteem? Is sounding gay a bad thing?
Over 77 minutes, the journey that Thorpe goes on is stunning. Especially when he talks with relatives about how he didn’t sound like this until he hit puberty and older. Juxtaposing his journey, he interviews a personal friend that is straight as an arrow. However, his buddy has an incredibly high pitch voice. There’s nothing physically wrong with the friend, it’s just the voice he grew into as an adult.
What sucks is that when the documentary starts digging into deeper areas, it feels like it has to race to a conclusion. I could have seen the documentary fairing better on what of the Premium Cable channels. Hopefully, Thorpe follows up what he found here with a second documentary. I’m not holding my breath, but this film did beat my expectations. The DVD comes with a trailer as the sole special feature.
RELEASE DATE: 11/3/2015