Understanding auditory gaydar experiences of lesbian women and gay men

ABSTRACT

Voice-based categorisation of others’ sexual orientations, known as auditory gaydar judgments, can represent stressful and stigmatising events for targets. This mixed-methods study examined sense-making about others’ auditory gaydar judgements. Sixty-seven lesbian women and 77 gay men described negative episodes in which they thought that their sexual orientation was inferred from their voices. Those reporting such experiences also rated their emotional distress and their engagement with coping strategies. Those reporting no experiences explained why they might have had none. We analysed whether participants’ judgements represented stigmatising experiences and how gender conformity perceptions shaped individuals’ sense-making. Gay men reported experiencing auditory gaydar more often, rated such experiences as more emotionally distressing, and reported engaging more with coping strategies than lesbian women did. Gay men described both being stigmatised by others’ gaydar judgements and their own attempts to sound straight. Gaydar experiences of gay men were occasioned by deviations from gender conformity. Lesbians’ experiences were sometimes interpreted through emic subcultural gender concepts. In line with the minority stress model, auditory gaydar judgements should be considered as stressors contributing to individuals’ wellbeing, at least for gay men.

KEYWORDS:

• Gaydar
• voice
• lesbian women
• gay men
• sexual orientation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Declaration of conflicting interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and publication of this article.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to informed consent restrictions.

Ethics approval

The study has received a favourable opinion from the University of Surrey ethics committee (UEC/2017/091/FHMS).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/19419899.2024.2314123

Additional information

Funding

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship grant agreement No 700844. Project title ‘Beyond “Straight Talking”: The Consequences of Vocal Cues to Sexual Identity for Modern Prejudice’ (Acronym: TheGayVoice).