I met Dr. Kinsey recently and was quite overwhelmed with the man, He was not the dull pedant I had somehow expected, but rather packed an astonishingly lively and varied conversation into two hours. We discussed the aims and problems of ONE and other homosexual organizations, censorship, legal defense and reforms, why homosexuals remain in hostile communities, and his own publishing plans, his travels and his constant battle with postal and customs censors. Much of his Institute for Sex Research's budget was consumed, he said, trying to defend in court the right of scientists to receive materials necessary to their studies. A major customs case was pending when he died regarding large shipments from Europe which customs officials classed as lewd. His books also have been subject to litigations here and abroad.

He was most disturbed by those who felt scientists. ought to " gloss over' conclusions which might disturb the holy status quo. Many critics thought his studies were well enough so long as the results weren't publicized.

His information seemed unlimited. If I slipped up on details about a new Iowa law, a Miami vice raid, or some obscure name or quote, he corrected me, not professorially, but as if concerned that his own information was perhaps incorrect. Anyone who has ever talked with him must laugh at the charge that "only immoral people or exhibitionists would admit the sort of things Kinsey reported." Within minutes he could surely have charmed the most reticent spinster to speak frankly of things she'd seldom even allowed in her thoughts.

Society's debt to Kinsey is immeasurable. Despite the free talk about sex in recent decades, it remained for Kinsey and associates fully to expose the hollowness of current mores. He proved to a reluctant audience that its notions of normal behavior were nonsense, that the secret sins that harried sensitive souls were often general practice.

Homosexuals, above all, are deeply indebted. Many

one

8