by L. Cowin and Grace Hill-San Francisco, CA
There was no doubt about it, Alfred Kinsey was a name well known by the end of the week. On November 6th, San Francisco State University hosted a celebration to honor the 50th anniversary of Alfred C. Kinsey’s work of studying human sexuality. And as they happily prepared for the event, PLA members in the Bay Area were making preparations of our own.
We planned a rally protesting Kinsey’s work as well as the university’s usage of his findings as the dominant material in many of its human sexuality courses. Although Kinsey is regarded by many as an expert on sexuality and as the "Father of the Sexual Revolution", we knew he was definitely no hero.
Kinsey seemed to have an agenda to popularize homosexuality, pedophilia, incest and bestiality among the American people. Among his claims were that children, being sexual from birth, should have the right to engage in any sexual activity they desire, at any age they desire. Also, people are not naturally heterosexual , that is a condition that’s imposed by society. His work promotes such a twisted, warped version of the love that God gave us as a precious gift, to enjoy only in a blessed, committed union of one man and one woman.
Many do not know that Kinsey used pedophiles to assist him in collecting data on child sexuality by having them report their ministrations on young boys. He relied heavily on interviews with prison inmates, including sex offenders and used this data as a representation of the general population. Later, ignoring discrepancies and skewed or biased data, Kinsey manipulated his numbers to achieve the results he desired.
We decided that the Kinsey celebration would be a perfect opportunity for us to alert members of the Bay Area of how wrong his findings were and demand a representation of traditional family values within the city’s public school curriculum..
The day of the event dawned cold and cloudy. Rain drizzled or poured, on and off, all morning. At the rally site, we awaited anxiously for the rain to stop, for we were not allowed a sound system if any rain was falling. Exactly half an hour before kick-off, the skies cleared up and we were allowed to set up. Thankfully, we were not forced to cancel the whole event.
In the meantime, a team of well-researched and informed PLA members, lead by Catherine Wright, attended the conference where both the guest speakers and panelists and audience were expressing how wonderful Kinsey was, how originally brilliant and unrestricted by the bonds of forced social conformity. Catherine made her way to the front and asked some very pointed questions, addressing the fact that if some of Kinsey’s data was acknowledged to be faulty or biased than perhaps other data was as well. Perhaps a good way to prove Kinsey right or wrong was to interview the incest and molestation victims Kinsey repeatedly used to see what lasting effects his research had. The unsuspecting panel and the audience as well, did a double-take, realizing that there was a force present to be reckoned with. The conference broke for lunch, at which time our rally began.
Grace Hill emceed the event, with SFSU PLA President Jennifer Perry reading the demands we put forth to the school faculty. We were blessed to get some last-minute confirmations of speakers from the community. Among them were Mother Wright of Oakland, Christine Froehlich of the Women’s Federation for World Peace, Angela Sincavage, a student at SF City College and an amateur dancer, and Catherine Wright of the PLA. The ever-famous STD dance met with chuckles and grins from the students. Some were even caught singing along to the chorus. Angela Sincavage wowed the crowd with an original hip-hop dance performance. Mark Lukyn topped off the event with a slightly modified version of the rap from the PLA ‘98 International Tour.
The day was not without its opposition. Hecklers dotted the crowd, spitting shouts of challenge and protest. One campus club, the International Socialist Organization, pranced in front of the stage with a banner proclaiming "Gay Rights Now!" One panelist from the conference who was an observer actually broke from the crowd, marched right up to one speaker, Jennifer Perry, and loudly denounced our message. He was swiftly escorted to the side of the stage so he would not continue his attempt of disrupting the rally.
Overall, it was a victory. We made a big noise on campus and made students aware of the issue. Many were totally unaware of the condemning controversy surrounding Kinsey’s work. Last, but certainly not least, we made the 6 o’clock evening news on KRON, Channel 4. The clip was positive and informative. We felt really lucky to make the news after so little advertising beforehand in our short week of preparation. But it just reinforced our belief that anything is possible if you’ve got Heavenly Father behind you. Just have faith and push forward!
We’ve heard rumors that the Kinsey advocates are planning an attack on the PLA. Great! The fight is on!