I disagree with you on this point. While both have strong SW Virginia accents, it’s only Jerry that has what the author of this academic paper calls a “gay speech pattern.” That bit of the accent is wholly unrelated to the SW Virginia accent. I’ve only heard Terry speak a few times, but I could tell their voices apart every time with no trouble whatsoever.

Sorry to have a dialogue with another commentator on your own blog, and to refer to you in third person while visiting as your guest.

No problem. :)

I do eagerly look forward to reading the whole of Mr. Renn’s paper because his conclusion that “it is unlikely that many gay men consciously choose to sound gay, given the attendant costs of such a speech pattern in the romantic marketplace,” seems inconsistent with my own [humbly anecdotal] experience.

It’s really a fascinating paper. I hope you enjoy it. I certainly did. The author did a great job of tacking what is surely an uncomfortable topic.

I would happily indulge your lengthy exposition on intonation and vocal register for wholly recreational purposes, though I suspect that to do so on this thread would be somewhat of a digression. I have looked over the post to which you’ve referred and found it very interesting; I hope sometime soon to have the time to read entire underlying paper. However, as Waldo observes in his post on it, “It must be noted that the author is careful to point out that not all gay men have gay speech patterns, and that not all people with gay speech patterns are gay.” I would offer Mr. Kilgore’s speech patterns and my own as proof of this very point, though on opposite ends of its spectrum.

Terry Kilgore and his brother have nearly identical speech patterns, though the pitch is rather different. While some might attribute the similarity to the genetic argument for sexual orientation (Terry and Jerry are twins after all), I and Ockham’s razor would agree that they more probably arise from similarly observed and mimicked vocal patterns during formative years. Whether or not pitch is affected in the same manner that pronunciation can be is more in your area of expertise than mine, but it’s the predominant if not only difference between the two brothers, at least to my casual, unlearned ear.

As a final counterpoint to your comment, I suggest that, even if Jerry Kilgore is gay, which I very much doubt, there’s a world of difference between self-loathing and self-ignorance. That opens up the philosophical can of worms on the subject of whether one can, in fact, be gay if one doesn’t know one is gay. I suspect that one can, although I may be biased.

Waldo,

Sorry to have a dialogue with another commentator on your own blog, and to refer to you in third person while visiting as your guest. I do eagerly look forward to reading the whole of Mr. Renn’s paper because his conclusion that “it is unlikely that many gay men consciously choose to sound gay, given the attendant costs of such a speech pattern in the romantic marketplace,” seems inconsistent with my own [humbly anecdotal] experience. Re the adoption of dictionaries and thesauri for leisure reading, the phrase “much too much in common” again rears its ugly head.

It certainly wasn’t before my time. :) I have no excuse but writing faster than I can think, which isn’t hard to do. Corrected accordingly — thanks.

I’m disappointed such a progressive blog would describe Mr. Kilgore’s mannerisms as “shockingly effeminate”–what ever happened to dispelling those notions of false gender stereotypes?

Just because I disagree with a concept held by people doesn’t mean that I can’t employ it. :)

I think that the whole American notion of protecting people from terrorism is ridiculous — our national security model will do nothing to prevent a determined individual or group from killing hundreds or thousands of people. In fact, I believe that it’s impossible for a liberal democracy to prevent such an occurrence through physical security measures. But I can’t imagine that I would advise a candidate to acknowledge that. Were I advising Tim Kaine, I’d encourage him to have a plank that includes funding enhanced security, even though I personally believe that it would do nothing.

That makes me both a hypocrite and a realist, I suppose.