Have you ever worried about sounding gay? Is there even such a thing as a gay accent? And if so, should it be discouraged?
These are the questions film director David Thorpe seeks to consider in his new documentary, "Do I Sound Gay?" The film draws upon interviews with LGBT celebrities, linguists, historians, voice coaches and others to discuss the idea of a gay accent, and if discouraging it is a form of internalized homophobia.
The film is in the early days of a month-long Kickstarter campaign to fund the post-production needs for the documentary, such as editing, sound design, marketing and film festival campaigning.
"I've always been self-conscious about 'sounding gay,'" Thorpe says on his Kickstarter page. "It's one of the main things that 'gives me away' as gay. Three years ago, I decided I'd had enough. I knew that my anxiety came from my internalized homophobia telling me: Gay equals bad, so sounding gay equals bad. So, I decided to make 'Do I Sound Gay?'"
Thorpe conducted over 165 interviews in four countries across three years. He interviewed well-known LGBT icons such as David Sedaris, George Takei, Margaret Cho, Tim Gunn and Dan Savage.
"I'm embarrassed to say this … but sometimes somebody will say, 'I didn't know you were gay.' It's like, 'Why does that make me feel good?'" says Sedaris in the fundraisers introductive video. "I hate myself for thinking that. It's very disturbing. I thought I was beyond that. What's the problem if somebody assumes that I'm gay when I open my mouth?"
Thorpe hopes to raise $115,000 for the film through Kickstarter and in just a few days has already raised over $20,000. Backers of the project will receive a variety of perks, including access to the documentary, t-shirts, signed copies of Dan Savage and Tim Gunn's books and festival screening tickets.
New Documentary Considers The Gay Accent And Internalized Homophobia
Read More
Everything You Need to Know About the New Queer Bar Coming to Ann Arbor
The rumors are true — there’s a new queer bar coming to Ann Arbor later this year, and Pride Source sat down with co-founder Saharsh Hajela to [...]
Why a Local Academic Is Fostering Queer Discussion and Community Through an Old-Fashioned Book Club
Queer books on public library shelves have come under fire across the country in recent years, but you wouldn’t know it at the Ypsilanti District Library [...]
Kathy Griffin Keeps on Surviving: Comedian Talks Tour, Longtime LGBTQ+ Allyship and Support From 'Civilian Gays'
Kathy Griffin has been through even more than you probably know. She lost a lung to cancer, lost her mother and lost many of her close friends. In 2020, the [...]
‘Queer Drunk Punk’ Author Zehava Frieman on How Growing Up in Grosse Pointe Park Inspired Her Debut Novel
When Zehava Frieman finally sat down to write “Queer Drunk Punk” in 2021 on the tail end of decades of what she describes as “creative [...]
Go to Church (or Temple), Observe Trans Day of Visibility, Catch a Queer Film, See an Aerial Drag Performance
Spring has sprung and it’s time for all the cute little cubbies and big, strong bears to emerge from hibernation — sunshine and good times [...]
Why Phluid Project Founder Rob Smith Left the Corporate World to Promote Gender Inclusivity
Thanks to the era of “new media,” where no stone is left unturned when it comes to invading the privacy of every public figure from social media [...]
