Indiana House Bars Funding for IU’s Kinsey Institute

The Indiana House of Representatives voted 53-34 on Wednesday to block all state funds from Indiana University’s Kinsey Institute, the Associated Press reported.

Rep. Lorissa Sweet, a Republican, proposed the measure as an amendment to the budget bill. “By limiting the funding to Kinsey Institute through Indiana University’s tax dollars, we can be assured that we are not funding ongoing research committed by crimes.” Sweet said. She specifically accused Alfred Kinsey of committing the crime of child exploitation. Kinsey died in 1956.

Rep. Matt Pierce, a Democrat whose Bloomington district includes the university campus, said that Sweet’s claims were “based on old unproven allegations of conspiracies that did not exist,” calling them “warmed-over internet memes that keep coming back.”

Pierce said the university maintained a department that ensured all research involving humans met federal laws and that the Kinsey Institute aimed to better understand human sexuality, including how to treat and prevent sexual predators and pedophiles.

An Indiana University spokesman and the institute’s director didn’t immediately comment on the vote.

The AP said he fate of the Kinsey funding prohibition might not be decided until a final version of the state budget is voted upon by lawmakers in late April.