Here we go again.
A study from Ohio State University has DETECTED seven men as being HOMOSEXUALS based on their voices alone.
They asked seven gay and seven heterosexual males to record single-syllable words (including "mass," "food" and "sell") and then played the recordings for listeners. The study participants were then asked to identify the sexual orientation of the speakers when hearing only the first letter sound of those words, the first two letter sounds, or the entire words. The listeners were unable to determine the sexual orientation after hearing the sound of the first letter in the spoken word, for example, just the "m" sound in the word "mass." But, "when presented with the first two letter sounds [for example "ma"], listeners were 75 percent accurate," [researcher Erik] Tracy said. "We believe that listeners are using the acoustic information contained in vowels to make this sexual orientation decision," he explained.
I do apologize for raising this complaint again.
But I am really fed up with the way that the scientific community in the U.S. "studies" gay men. (Certainly this charge can be extended to gay women and other members of the LGBT community.)
Namely:
Stop abusing us with "studies" that are designed to show how homosexuality can be detected without our consent -- by recording our voices, weighing our brains, analyzing the way we walk.
I do believe that gay people live a happier life, generally, if the people that they know know that they are gay. But I don't own the desires and identities of other people. I don't dictate who they are -- and I don't believe that I have the right to compel other people to disclose their sexual identity nor do I make it my business to investigate the sexuality of others without their say-so.
Let's imagine a similar study, one where participants were asked to identify Jews based on their noses.
Imagine a summary report where researchers confidently told us that, "Participants could not identify a Jew nose from a distance, but when they came within six feet of a Jew, they could recognize it starting with ..."
The premise itself is revolting.
I think a much better study than this one would be a study about scientific studies on gay people. Why is science so obsessed with studies about detecting who is gay based on secondary behaviors or characteristics -- how gay men walk, how they talk?