Feature: The Kinsey Reports

We continue our look at significant events and symbolism in LGBT history with a very brief introduction to the Kinsey reports of 1948 and 1953.

Alfred Charles Kinsey, a zoologist at the University of Indiana and later founder of the Institute for sex research blew away middle-America when, in 1948, he published Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male and subsequently, in 1953, Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female.


His reports were both sensational and controversial – not only for the hitherto taboo subject matter, but for the findings too. He presented a view of sexuality that turned on its head what, until that point, society had considered to be ‘normal’ sexual behaviour.

His reports offered a picture of sexuality that blurred the boundaries between heterosexuality and homosexuality. He talked of a 7 point scale where 0 was completely heterosexual and 6 was completely homosexual, and in between was a continuum of desire. One’s sexuality, he suggested, was prone to change over time.

0	Completely heterosexual
1	Predominantly heterosexual and incidentally homosexual
2	Mostly heterosexual and more than incidentally homosexual
3	50% heterosexual and 50% homosexual
4	Mostly homosexual and more than incidentally heterosexual
5	Predominantly homosexual and incidentally heterosexual
6	Completely homosexual

Most significantly of all for the LGBT community, Kinsey’s research posited a view of existing levels of homosexual desire and action that had previously been denied. His research was groundbreaking – no study before had uncovered such ‘truths’ about what people were actually doing sexually. He laid bare masturbation practices, homosexual attraction and action, extra-marital affairs, and pre-marital sex, amongst others. His was a view of society that at that time, society was not prepared to accept and even now his work is the subject of much debate with the religious right, for example claiming it seeks to legitimise homosexuality – he did after all find that 13% of men and 7% of women were homosexual.

50 years after his death Kinsey’s research remains a significant point in LGBT history. The reports have their critics – some justifiable, some less so – but regardless, the Kinsey reports (both bestsellers) marked a watershed in how western society considered sex and sexuality.