Could it just be a combination of a stereotype and confirmation bias? In the 70s the stereotypical gay man spoke with a lisp and always let his hands hang as if his wrists were limp. Anyone who spoke with a lisp or used that particular affectation (the limp wrist) was suspected of being gay, whereas any gay man who did not meet the stereotypes was met with "you're not like those other gay men."
I've known more straight men who spoke with a lisp than gay men who did, and I've known a fair number of men who were suspected of being gay for no other reason than that they spoke with a lisp and were judged to "be effeminate." I also know at least a few gay men who speak with no lisp whatsoever and who I would not know were gay unless they had revealed it to me. And seeing as I have lived my whole life in New York City, it's very likely that I know a whole lot of gay people that I do not even suspect of being gay, because they do not match any stereotype of gay people.
I've known more straight men who spoke with a lisp than gay men who did, and I've known a fair number of men who were suspected of being gay for no other reason than that they spoke with a lisp and were judged to "be effeminate." I also know at least a few gay men who speak with no lisp whatsoever and who I would not know were gay unless they had revealed it to me. And seeing as I have lived my whole life in New York City, it's very likely that I know a whole lot of gay people that I do not even suspect of being gay, because they do not match any stereotype of gay people.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould
