National Institutes for Health kick evolutionary biologist out of symposium for asking gender-critical questions

Popular evolutionary biologist Colin Wright was booted from a public symposium put on by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Human Genome Research Institute on July 17—and will be seeking a legal remedy.

The event occurred over two days online and was titled "Exploring the many dimensions of sex and gender in the genomics era." Wright, who holds a PhD in evolutionary biology, became an author and journalist after leaving academia in 2020 over an atmosphere of rigid ideological enforcement. He has been a vocal and public critic of gender identity ideology for several years. 

Wright said that his rights were violated when he was booted from the NIH symposium. 

"This was a public event federally funded by the National Institutes of Health to explore the concepts of sex and gender as they relate to human genomics. I did not violate the NIH policy against engaging in 'harassment, discrimination, or any behavior that is deemed unprofessional.' I simply asked straightforward questions about the biology of sex. By removing me from the symposium, I believe my 1st Amendment rights were violated, and I will be seeking legal counsel," Wright told The Post Millennial. 

He posted on X (formerly Twitter) how he was quietly viewing a presentation by a physician, Dr. Tucker Pyle, titled "Sex and gender in the clinic: where rubber hits road" when he was abruptly removed from the webinar without warning. Wright attempted to re-join the presentation and was initially denied.

He said he then emailed the communications director of the event and was re-admitted—but only briefly, before being booted once again after asking questions in the Q&A chat box for attendees.

The symposium is "view only," meaning that attendees have no way of being disruptive, even if they tried. Another academic (who is critical of gender ideology like Wright), philosophy professor Tomas Bogardus, posted to X that he was also removed from the NIH symposium. Bogardus said he had also been posting what he called "critical yet civil questions" in the Q&A chat of a presentation at the time he was removed.

It has since emerged that an attendee of the symposium accused Wright—in the chat box of the live event—of being "unprofessional" for asking what Wright classifies as "specific questions about the biology of sex." This co-attendee, Adam Herpolsheimer, who uses they/them pronouns and posts semi-pornographic photos on Instagram, accused Wright of asking questions in "bad faith and unrelated to the presentation at hand."

Wright provided screenshots of the questions he submitted, which included an explanation of how human beings are not able to change sex followed by: "Why do you ignore the fundamental and universal definition of sex in biology as rooted in the type of gamete an individual has the function to produce?" He vehemently denied violating the NIH's code of conduct, which was emailed to him along with the link to the event. The code states that the organizers "will not tolerate harassment, discrimination, or any behaviour that is deemed unprofessional…"

 

In an email with The Post Millennial, a representative from the National Institutes of Health denied that anyone was being excluded from the event, as it will be posted to YouTube and publicly available after the symposium ends. The NIH claimed that Wright and two others were disruptive: “According to our platform records, three attendees were removed for disrupting the event by repeatedly posting questions unrelated to the session topics in the virtual Q&A forum. This was in violation of the event’s code of conduct. Those attendees are certainly welcome to watch the proceedings when they are posted in the near future on YouTube and our website,” said the representative.

In June, Wright wrote about the upcoming NIH symposium in a magazine article. He criticized the NIH of putting on an event exclusively for radical gender activists. "Though billed as an interdisciplinary meeting of the minds, the event's list of presenters is ideologically homogeneous, consisting entirely of activist scientists and radical gender ideologues," wrote Wright. One of the speakers, for instance, argues that there are five sexes in human beings. Another claims that humans only believe in a binary view of sex because of "capitalism." A large portion of the speakers use they/them pronouns. 

By removing Wright and Borgardus from the event, the organizers seem to have proven Wright's theory correct: it was a symposium by and for radical adherents to unscientific gender ideology—all funded by the federal government.