I don’t know if this is asking if gay people code switch, or if it’s assuming the “gay accent” is like a customer service voice that people turn off when they talk normally vs what it actually is, which is just the way they talk normally.
Depends on how performative your social presence is. Some people don’t even bother to wear clothes if they’re staying at home and not going anywhere, because the way they dress is solely a tool for them that they have no interest in wasting effort upon when that effort is not producing results. Imagine a “gamer” who only plays video games when streaming it to an audience and refuses to touch them when there isn’t a profit motive. That’s pretty silly, isn’t it? And yet, far from impossible. It’s silly when someone changes how they behave just to label / advertise / broadcast their identity toward a target demographic, and it becomes sad when it’s something they do even though they don’t enjoy it.
Case in point:
I have a job answering a phone. The primary Unit Of Work in my position is “the call”. I take a call, extract relevant information, and proceed to provide it to the correct parties to activate solutions. But you know what? I fucking hate talking on the phone when I’m not being paid to do it :p
I will LITERALLY STRAIGHT UP TELL SOMEONE if they ever manage to actually get me stuck in a personal phone call with them that, and I quote:
“I got a job where I am paid to answer the phone because I don’t do it for free.”
If your business is concluded, I’m disconnecting the call now. If you want me to stay on the line with you, it’s not happening unless I’m on your payroll.
If you’re not done and you’re not paying me, you can explore the options of texting me or emailing me to conclude whatever information you wanted to convey.
Gratefully, i love every other aspect of my job: that it’s overnight on weekends, that i work four ten-hour shifts to reach full-time, that I get to play video games and watch shows and read comics between calls and all the paperwork stuff I also get done every week. It’s well worth temporarily dissociating into my Worksona for a couple minutes at a time so I get to enjoy all the other hours that pass engaged in recreation.
Edit: and to be honest … It’s not even THAT painful to be in a phone call really, it’s more that I feel childishly amused when I get to ACT bratty about it to friends and loved ones who are in on the joke. When it’s my credit union or my pharmacy or some other worthy task, I just go into professional mode. I genuinely enjoy griping bitchily about how much phone call suck to a much greater degree than any active dislike i might feel. But yes, participation in phone calls is just something I don’t incorporate into activities i pursue
I’ll guess it’s the same as people with a Southern accent, an Irish accent, a Scottish accent, or a New York accent, etc. If they’re around people who share the accent, then they use it more heavily.
Here’s an interesting video of English spoken with different accents:
