A number of non-faith-based events played a significant role in bringing the subject of homosexuality to the attention to the Methodist Church. The first occurred in 1948, when Sexual Behavior in the Human Male was published by Alfred C. Kinsey, Wardell B. Pomeroy, and Clyde E. Martin. In this publication, Kinsey claimed that all persons have a physiological capacity for homosexuality and that this capacity crosses all ethnic, class, racial, and age groups. It is in this volume that he introduced his now famous "Kinsey Scale"  which describes/charts a sexual orientation continuum (Kinsey, Pomeroy, and Martin, 1948, pp. 638-39, 656). He also suggested that discrimination against homosexual persons was socially destructive. Publication of Sexual Behavior in the Human Female by Kinsey and his colleagues (Wardell Pomeroy, Clyde Martin, and Paul Gebhard) in 1953 added to the awareness and consideration of sexuality and homosexuality in the minds of United States population. The subjects became more acceptable in conversation, whether or not the people talking about them believed that sexuality and homosexuality were acceptable in practice. The "taboo" on talking about sexuality seemed to be losing its power.

 

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