Public money for Kinsey

Scholars pride themselves on a devotion to facts and hard data from which they can draw conclusions that affect our lives. As students at a research university, we, as well as society in general, have a right to facts and evidence to broaden our educations and to learn about our world. We need that information.\nSex is an indispensable part of the world. It should be studied in the same way we study political science, chemistry and history. After all, without sex, our society would be history.\nUnfortunately, HB 1841 has been introduced into the Indiana House. This bill would ban public funding for all undertakings of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction. The Kinsey Institute could not buy paper for its printers or fund research with any public money. According to the Kinsey Institute's Web site, IU itself is among its four sources of funding, which also include grants, corporate earnings and gifts and bequests. \nAlthough this bill wouldn't end the Institute's work, it certainly would make it more difficult. This is no more than a moral crusade on the part of certain Indiana legislators. Scientific research should not be subject to the same squeamish Victorian attitudes that sweep sexual health under the rug, hoping it will go away. We can't hide behind "moral values" whenever the facts are not table talk for the dinner hour.\nEven the Vatican is rumored to maintain a collection of pornography. Sex, pornography, gender issues and reproduction have existed for millennia, and they're not disappearing. So instead of ignoring the process that leads to life, we must acknowledge and seek to understand it.\nThat some in our society are still uncomfortable with the Kinsey Institute more than 50 years after its establishment underscores just how important the Institute's work really is.\nBesides helping us understand literature, history and social trends, the Kinsey Institute serves very practical purposes. It educates people about sexually transmitted infections, dispels myths about sexual practices and ultimately aids the fight against diseases, from the inconvenient to the life-threatening. It also researches ways to curb unintended pregnancies. The Kinsey Institute is not only useful but also humanitarian.\nThankfully, no one has passed a bill condemning the study of other species' mating habits. This is essentially what HB 1841 tries to do, except with the species most familiar to us: our own. It's ironic that we understand mating is an integral part of biology and that we study the reproduction of countless creatures from insects to other primates, yet we are still mystified by the mating habits of humans. \nHere at IU, the Kinsey Institute leads its research field, and it benefits a state that should be more concerned with retaining educated individuals than driving them away. Restricting public funding would send the message that Indiana doesn't value education.\nFurthermore, IU rightly prides itself on the Kinsey Institute. It is a direct beneficiary of Herman B Wells's ideology of knowledge over ignorance. The University must honor its legacy and never allow close-minded legislators to affect important research.