Frozen in bronze, he gazes at an empty, transparent resin chair across from him, an inquisitive expression on his carved face, an indecipherable research table in his left hand. Life-sized Kinsey himself - clad in bowtie, cuffed pants and suit jacket - reposes in a chair just beyond the institute’s entrance. The building boasts explicit sketches and sculptures, while vivid photographs of mothers in labor lead into an exhibit featuring a 1984 turquoise poster: “Great Sex! Don’t let AIDS stop it,” it reads.

The university would typically fund the rest.Īs officials work to understand the law, researchers pursue their projects, gathering in a space where erotic art often adorns the walls of most rooms. Garcia said about two-thirds of the institute’s funding comes from grants and donations that are subject to change annually. A “thorough legal review” is underway to determine if the university can comply with the law while ensuring research continues, she said. The university is “firmly committed to academic freedom,” Whitten said in an April 28 statement. “It’s a chilling precedent,” Garcia said, a sentiment shared by Indiana University President Pamela Whitten. “It reinforces, for me, the importance of the research being done here,” she said.Īnd that research, along with the work of other public colleges and universities, could be at risk as the Legislature uses funding to “dictate” what questions can be asked within a specific program, the institute’s director said.

Back then, when her husband John Bancroft was the director, attacks were frequently rooted in the same kind of misinformation about sex and health that the institute’s research has helped dispel, Graham said. Senior scientist Cynthia Graham, who studies sexual behavior among older adults as well as contraceptive use in women, returned to the institute this year after departing in 2004. “It’s another attack on legitimate research.” “Sexuality research tends to get targeted, often for political reasons,” Halpern said. When she heard about Indiana curtailing Kinsey Institute funding, she thought, “Here we go again.” Professor Carolyn Halpern teaches her students about Kinsey in the Department of Maternal and Child Health at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, she said. He looked around him at a culture of sexual ignorance in which 17 year olds could receive life.The institute’s website touts a lengthy Frequently Asked Questions section to tackle misconceptions, including the sex abuse allegations against Kinsey and contentions of hidden materials in the library.Īfter the February vote, a new page requests support, such as posting on social media or donating and, where necessary, rectifying false information. There is a sense in which no one ever ceases to be religious when Kinsey left organised religion behind, he retained a sense of ministry and a hatred of hypocrites. Most importantly, and increasingly, he has been accused of being the accomplice of his paedophile informants. Subsequent surveys have ritually criticised his methodology some feminists have claimed that he was a misogynist. His previous biographer James Jones, whom Gathorne-Hardy stitches up at length, argued that his scientific objectivity was compromised by his fascinated exploration of his own sexuality - that, in particular, he deliberately overestimated the number of male homosexuals because he was one. The case against Kinsey and his surveys of sexual behaviour has grown up over the years. When considering Alfred Kinsey, it is always important to remember who his enemies are. More recently, their allegedly Christian allies have persuaded them to turn their fire on to the man whom they blame for encouraging adultery, fornication and sodomy.

His advice about gentle permissive parenting had produced a generation who refused to fight their wars, listened to loud music and probably inhaled. Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy Chatto & Windus, 514pp, 20įor a long time, ardent Republicans in the US blamed Dr Spock for the sixties.

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