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The operation of gaydar is sometimes claimed to depend on sensitivity to a wide variety of clues: overt violations of gender role on the obvious end, and less subtle clues, like reaction to questions, on the other. It can also be conceived simply as intuition. It is also often said, by people that claim they are equipped with gaydar, that they can tell that a person is gay before that person has even "come out of the closet" yet.
Gaydar, as a term, tends to be limited to the senses and intuitions that require no outside information, fact-checking, or questioning.
Many feel this notion should not be perpetuated, claiming that it reinforces social stereotypes about gay people. It is not possible to consistently detect whether people are gay or not, based solely on their conformity to stereotypes. The concept of gaydar tends to be treated as a joke, cliché, or cultural artifact in the gay community rather than as an entirely serious concept, though some believe fairly firmly in their or others' ability to exercise gaydar. Many people who are not gay do believe in the concept.
No scientific study has absolutely verified that popular stereotypes are accurate enough to allow a person to reliably guess the sexual orientation of a stranger, although some studies suggest that one can have a limited ability to distinguish between homosexuals and heterosexuals.
Gaydar is also a popular, profile-based dating website for gay men (and, more recently, for women as well). Users must register with the site to use it and can complete a profile including multiple-choice data (such as hair color, eye color, build, likes and pastimes and other more 'personal' details), free-text descriptions (about themselves and what the user seeks in a prospective partner) and, optionally, one or more photographs, which are often sexually explicit.
The site is sometimes considered with disdain, particularly by gay men in relationships, and criticised as presenting a sex-obsessed image of gay people, as many members only visit the site to look for (relatively) anonymous sex. Such criticisms may be unfair, however, as the Java-based chatrooms are often full of people making conversation about matters non-sexual, in much the same way as Internet Relay ChatInternet Relay Chat (IRC is a form of instant communication over the Internet. It is mainly designed for group (one-to-many) communication in discussion forums called channels but also allows one-to-one communication. IRC was created by Jarkko Oikarinen ( or chatrooms elsewhere.
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