Fritz Klein (sex researcher)
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Fritz Klein | |
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| Born | Fred Klein December 27, 1932 |
| Died | May 24, 2006 (aged 73) San Diego, California, U.S. |
| Education | |
| Occupation | Psychiatrist |
| Partner | Tom Reise |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields |
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Fred "Fritz" Klein (December 27, 1932 – May 24, 2006) was an Austrian-born American psychiatrist and sex researcher who studied bisexuals and their relationships. He was an author and editor, as well as the developer of the Klein Sexual Orientation Grid, a scale that measures an individual's sexual orientation. Klein believed that sexual orientation could change over the course of a lifetime and that researchers underestimated the number of men that had sexual interactions with both sexes.[1] Fritz Klein founded the American Institute of Bisexuality in 1998, which is continuing his work by sponsoring bisexual-inclusive sex research, educating the general public on sexuality, and promoting bisexual culture and community.
Klein was born in Vienna, Austria, to Orthodox Jewish parents. He and his family fled to New York City when he was a child, to escape antisemitism.[2]
He received a BA from Yeshiva University in 1953, and an MBA from Columbia University in 1955. He studied medicine at University of Bern in Switzerland for six years, receiving his MD in 1971.
Self-identifying as bisexual, Klein was surprised at the lack of literature on his sexuality in the New York Public Library in 1974. That year he founded the Bisexual Forum, the world's first bisexual group.[3][4]
