magazine issue 7 2017 / Issue 34

Straight talk about gaydar: How do individuals guess others’ sexual orientation?

• written by Fabio Fasoli & Peter Hegarty
• edited by Julia Rohrer

Conclusion

In recent years, researchers have focused mostly on the question of the accuracy of gaydar. In doing so, their results surely inform the kinds of discussion that ensued between Leela and Bender. But we cannot help but notice that, historically, this question has often been asked in psychology in the interests of detecting gay men and lesbians without their consent, and often in the service of diagnosing them with mental illnesses (Morin, 1977). In a society where all are treated equally (or should be treated equally), sexual orientation is largely a private matter until someone self-discloses. Hence, there can be something dubious about the motive to detect others’ sexual orientation. As there is no reason to know whether a person prefers red or white wine, unless you have to offer it, there is logically no reason to need to know if a person is gay or straight. (Unless, like Leela in the bar with Bender, you need to know that for sex, friendship or community—issues rarely encountered by straight people who move through social contexts where most people are presumed to be straight). Harmful stereotyping of gays and lesbians as different and social norms to be informed about gay life can co-exist. Thus, if you ever experience a situation where like Bender you thought “he cannot be straight, he is gay!”, we hope that this article might ask you to also reflect on what your question might assume and why you would need to determine a stranger’s sexuality as gay or straight in the first place.

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