Test Your Gaydar

Some gays have criticized Bailey, saying he's just perpetuating the stereotype that gays are effeminate.

"On average gay men are more feminine in certain ways than straight men. And it's an important scientific fact and we need to understand it better," Bailey said.

Our testers never talked about masculine or feminine, but most claimed to see clear signals -- including a deaf woman in our group.

Since a lot of cues about sexuality are tied to the way people speak, I asked her how she knew.

"The visual part of it, I think, is very important because I socialize with a lot of gay friends, and I think it has to do something with the clothes and maybe their affect. I got 60 percent right, so I don't know if I have a good gaydar or not. But I think it has to do with intuition. It's like your gut," she said.

Some testers got most everyone right. What tipped them off? Some said speech patterns did it. Others said a few of the men's eyes tipped them off.

"I think gay men have their eyebrows up," one tester said.

More people mentioned voices, or clothing. Singling out one subject, a tester said, "It's basically the flannel shirt, the Levi 501s and the combat boots. It's a gay 1980s outfit."

And apparently, there's a straight look. Most testers identified two men as straight, because of their "bad hair."

But of course none of this is 100 percent reliable.

The man who got the highest straight score -- was gay.

One of our straight testers said it's no surprise he guessed wrong. "I'm a straight man. I really have no need to look at you guys and say who's gay and who's straight," he said. "I thought they were all straight!"

On the other hand, many gays said they have better gaydar because they've needed to develop it to find partners.

One said, "I notice things that are different about myself from other people. Who else out there has these same things? And you learn to pick up on just the littlest things."