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The Kinsey Institute and transgender people

The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction is a research center in Bloomington, Indiana. It was founded in 1947 by sexologist Alfred Kinsey as the Institute for Sex Research. It was renamed the Kinsey Institute in 1981. It remained an independent incorporation until it merged with Indiana University on November 30, 2016.

2003 IASR meeting

John Bancroft was Director of the Kinsey Institute and a member of the International Academy of Sex Research (IASR), a trade group whose objectives are “the promotion of high standards of research and scholarship in the field of sexual behavior by fostering communication and cooperation among scholars engaged in such research.”

Bancroft frequently invited J. Michael Bailey of Northwestern University to work with him on panels and on books he is editing. After Bailey wrote the defamatory 2003 book The Man Who Would Be Queen, Bailey presented at the IASR conference at the Kinsey Institute. His presentation, titled, “Identity Politics as a Hindrance to Scientific Truth,” was not well received.

Bancroft stood up after the Bailey lecture and said “Michael, I would caution you against calling this book ‘science’ because I have read it … and I can tell you it is NOT science.”

Resources

The Kinsey Institute (kinseyinstitute.org)