Trans activists at UC Davis claim evolutionary biologist not qualified to speak about sex, gender

Dr. Colin Wright, who has a PhD in evolutionary biology and ecology, gave a talk in Davis, California on April 22 titled “The Biology of Sex & Gender Curricula in CA Public Schools.” His appearance attracted a crowd of trans activist protesters who objected to his presence on the grounds that his PhD thesis was about spiders, not gender.

Bearing signs such as “Colin’s PhD was about spider colonies not gender studies,” and messages about humans not being equal to bugs, the activists suggested Wright’s speech was “right-wing propaganda.” One sign even went so far as to suggest that his words could “kill kids.”

Wright began his talk by stating that he is not political, that he wasn’t there to “own the libs,” but rather it was his intention to make factual claims about biology in the hopes of sparking productive conversations.

The first part of Wright’s talk involved outlining very basic facts of biology in order to debunk the common activist claims that sex is a spectrum or a social construct.

“There are only two sexes in humans, and so, because there’s only two sexes, sex is binary, that should be the end of the talk,” said Wright. “A lot of activists will try to just muddy the waters about those absolutely basic facts of biology.”

Trans activists are fond of using people born with chromosomal abnormalities as a way to argue that biological sex is a spectrum rather than binary, which somehow means that men who do not have such chromosomal abnormalities are in fact women.

Anoosh Jorjorian, director of local LGBT group Yolo Rainbow Families, was part of the protest outside the event.

“He is a specialist in spiders. Apparently because spiders have only two sexes, he believes that this applies to human sex and human gender identity, which is incorrect,” Jorjorian told the Davis Vanguard, adding that this “erases the entire population of intersex folks.”

Intersex is a misnomer for those born with chromosomal abnormalities, or differences of sex development (DSDs). People with DSDs are either male or female but have variations in reproductive anatomy development.

“Because there’s been this ongoing campaign of disinformation and lies about the trans community, about how trans children transition and about our organization, we are here to provide some truth,” Jorjorian added. “We have a truth booth set up for people who are interested in learning the real facts. And we’re here to show that Davis rejects transphobia.”

Wright dismisses the claims that he is not qualified to speak on the topic of human biology.

“The reason I don’t need to have specifically studied human sexual development for my PhD to speak about biological sex in humans is because the sex binary applies to every plant and animal that reproduces via the fusion of a sperm and egg. Humans, spiders, asparagus. Doesn’t matter,” he told The Post Millennial.

“My PhD is in evolutionary biology and ecology, and my research focus was in evolutionary behavioral ecology, which focuses on how selection shapes behavior. One of the most staggering behavioral differences seen across all animals is between males and females. So we tend to have a very firm grasp of the features of what males and females are at a fundamental level,” he added.

Wright further argues that gender studies is “totally irrelevant in discussions about biological sex, because that deals with social aspects of sex, not sex itself.”

“According to activists, I am not qualified to opine on the biology of sex because my PhD is in evolutionary biology instead of gender studies,” he recently pointed out on Twitter. “Meanwhile, they're perfectly fine with English professors spouting off in @washingtonpost about sex and neurobiology.”

The second part of Wright's talk focused on gender identity ideology in Davis schools. Wright explained that "masculine girls and feminine boys are considered transgender by definition. There’s no such thing as like gender nonconformity anymore.”

He stated that the "most horrific part of this whole thing" is that "there’s a giant medical apparatus that swings into motion for, to medicalize what is just common gender nonconformity, tomboys and feminine, and feminine males.”

He specifically called out the Davis Joint Unified School District (DJUSD) privacy policy that requires school staff to withhold information about a student's gender identity from parents unless the child gives permission for the information to be disclosed. Such policies exist in school boards all over the US and Canada.