Talk:The Kinsey Institute
From OutHistory
Jump to navigationJump to searchComments on The Kinsey Institute
Maida said ...
12:16, 5 February 2011 (EST)
Lesbians and those interested in lesbian culture: be aware that Jeannette Foster, the first woman to publish a book on lesbians in literature, was a librarian at the Kinsey Institute and did much of her research there. She worked for Alfred Kinsey.Don't miss the incredible biography "Sex Variant Woman: The Life of Jeannette Howard Foster" by Joanne Passet, which has Bloomington history as well as being an outstanding history of lesbians in the early twentieth century.
Maida said ...
12:26, 5 February 2011 (EST)
L/G/B/Ts should also be aware of Dr. Alan Bell, who co-directed the Kinsey Institute (ISR) in the 1970s. He co-authored a book called "Homosexuality, a study of diversity among men and women" (1978), which I believe was the first credible major gay study since Kinsey's. I interviewed Dr. Bell in 1978 for "Body Politic," a feminist, left-wing national lesbian/gay monthly periodical for Canada, published in Toronto. Dr. Bell was very sincere and emphatic in his support for the l/g community. He was a really nice guy who once told me he wished he could have written a poem about each of the research subjects, because research is so dry. My interview never ran in "Body Politic" because I hadn't realized they had a policy of only printing opinions of lesbians and gays - they wanted to be a consistent voice. I really liked the "Body Politic" (which was subsequently closed down by the Canadian government in a notorious censorship battle) but I always regretted they never ran the interview and let our community know about the ally we had in Dr. Alan Bell.
