If you don't believe in gaydar you must be straight.
I'm sorry, still not buying it. You can't just point to the news headlines without taking into account the possible reasons for the outcome. I had several problems with this study:
1.) The study wasn't exactly in the spirit of the myth.
There was far too much information given to the participants. The gaydar myth is based on the assumption that gay people can spot another one another just by glancing at them. This study was more about guessing the sexuality of a person after listening to and watching them for a period of time. We all give off clues about who we are, not just our sexuality but about many of our personal traits. Given enough time, I suspect that some clues may have emerged that straight people might miss. However, since Kevin Spacey is a skilled actor who studies, then mimics mannerisms and vocal inflections, it's really unlikely that he would give clues that way.
2.) There was not enough people in the study. Only 25 gay men, 23 gay women and 25 heterosexual men, 22 heterosexual women. It doesn't begin to capture the wide range of human sexuality. Further, there was no asexual or bisexual people to really test the theory.
3.) Although the gay participants did better than the heterosexual ones, they could not determine the reason. There are questions about whether there are cultural or other learned behaviours which would factor in. If gaydar was a real thing, wouldn't it cross borders? If it's simply a cultural signal, those signals would change across generations and regionally.
I have trouble with the way such studies are reported. The newspapers you linked to reacted like gaydar was confirmed as a real phenomenon yet the study was not conclusive. But, nice try.
I won't bore everyone here with more posts on the topic. To bring it back to the Fords - while I believe the Fords to be capable of anything, and as they have shown in the past they they are uncomfortable with homosexuality, it should not surprise me if they tried to ignite supporters by hinting the actor is gay. But since Spacey's movies and tv show are too high-brow for this pair, I'm more inclined to believe they barely know what he does and weren't even aware of the rumour. They're just vengeful pricks.