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Groups denounce portrayal in "Kinsey"

By David Crary
The Associated Press

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NEW YORK — Indignant conservative groups are protesting the release of the film "Kinsey," denouncing it as propaganda seeking to glorify the researcher they blame for inspiring the sexual revolution.

"Alfred Kinsey is responsible in part for my generation being forced to deal face-to-face with the devastating consequences of sexually transmitted diseases, pornography and abortion," said Brandi Swindell, head of a college-oriented group called Generation Life that plans to picket theaters showing the film.

"Kinsey," starring Liam Neeson as the pioneering professor, opens in limited release today and nationwide in the following weeks. It opens Nov. 19 in Seattle.

"Kinsey was a very complex man, in some ways damaged beyond repair," says the film's writer/director, Bill Condon. "I thought it was important to present it all, and let people form their own opinions."

Although the film portrays Kinsey as a flawed adulterer, conservative critics nonetheless contend it is too admiring. They argue that it omits unflattering details about Kinsey's interest in pedophilia and exaggerates the accuracy of the findings in his groundbreaking sex-behavior studies of 1948 and 1953.

"Instead of being lionized, Kinsey's proper place is with Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele or your average Hollywood-horror-flick mad scientist," said Robert Knight, director of Concerned Women of America's Culture & Family Institute.

Focus on the Family, an influential Christian ministry, said in a review of the film that "Kinsey" mocks Christianity and condones immorality.

"To say that it is rank propaganda for the sexual revolution and the homosexual agenda would be beyond stating the obvious," wrote reviewer Tom Neven.

Condon said Kinsey's research is open to legitimate criticism but suggested that those denouncing his film were "confusing discussion with endorsement.

"Their real aim, by maligning him and destroying his reputation, is to pretend that the last 50 years didn't happen," he added.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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