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Scholars ponder legal action against taxpayer-funded institute

Two scholars who question and criticize the concept of gender identity were recently kicked out of an NIH event on the topic, prompting them to ponder legal action, they told The College Fix in interviews this week.

Colin Wright, a well-known evolutionary biologist and Manhattan Institute fellow, and Tomás Bogardus, a philosophy professor at Pepperdine University and self described “traditional Catholic,” were booted from a webinar that was part of a two-day “Exploring the many dimensions of sex and gender in the genomics era” symposium hosted by NIH in mid-July.

The two scholars said they were wrongfully removed from the online event — especially grievous given it was a taxpayer-funded event.

“I was shocked more than anything, as my behavior was totally professional and in no way violated their Code of Conduct,” Wright told The College Fix via email. He said while private institutions might have more leeway, NIH is public, “and kicking me out of the event is a violation of my Constitutional rights under the 1st Amendment.”

Bogardus said he was also quite surprised at being booted, telling The Fix via email: “That’s essentially the equivalent of being forcibly ejected from a live, in-person event, and my behavior in no way would warrant that sort of treatment.”

At issue were some critical questions and comments the two scholars engaged in within the chat section.

“Our Symposium was a large public event at which we offered an open Q&A. We asked our moderators to ensure a professional environment that was safe, collaborative, and productive for all attendees,” Sarah Bates, an NIH spokesperson, told The College Fix on Wednesday.

She said joining the symposium required agreeing to a code of conduct.

“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,” she said via email. “This was in violation of the event’s code of conduct.”

Both Wright and Bogardus dispute this.

“My goal was to attend this event and simply ask the speakers questions about the content of their talks. I remained professional throughout, and made sure all my questions were directly related to statements made by the speakers,” Wright told The Fix.

Wright took to X to draw attention to being kicked out.

“This is completely unacceptable,” he posted. “I demand that Eric D. Green (@NHGRI_Director), the director of the @genome_gov at the @NIH, who gave the opening remarks, explain why Dr. Bogardus and I were kicked out of the event.”

I demand an explanation from the @NIH and @genome_gov as to why I was just kicked out of their public event “Exploring the many dimensions of sex and gender in the genomics era,” which I had registered for in advance and was quietly attending.

About 20 minutes into Dr. Tucker… pic.twitter.com/Q0YKfYFnzd

— Colin Wright (@SwipeWright) July 17, 2024

Bogardus said he knew he would most likely disagree with the presenters, but “I was hoping that I’d be able to ask questions and pose objections to the speakers during the Q&A periods.”

“That’s how it works in Philosophy: the Q&A periods are for challenging questions and objections. And it’s quite common for philosophers to attend talks they know they’ll disagree with, in order to raise objections in the Q&A,” he said.

Instead, Bogardus said he noticed there was no real dialogue between the speakers and the audience, that the “moderator seemed to be interested only in giving the speakers opportunities to elaborate on what they had already said.”

“I saw no pushback from the moderator to the speakers, despite these issues being extremely controversial,” he said. “So, by the time I got kicked out, I could see that this webinar was a bit absurd, and not a real academic event, where the truth of ideas could be tested by challenging questions and objections. That simply wasn’t going to happen, by design.”

The webinar was run by the National Institute of Health and National Genome Research Institute. Dr. Eric Green, the director of the two organizations, did not respond to an emailed request from The College Fix seeking comment.

Bogardus describes himself on his X profile as a “traditional Catholic.” He is outspoken against the so-called “activist orthodoxy” on sex and gender issues.

Wright has stirred up controversy for saying things such as that there are “only two sexes.”

Wright has also criticized the American Anthropological Association’s decision to cancel a female scholars’ panel on the importance of sex as a category, one other incident that upset what he refers to as the “activist orthodoxy.”

Bogardus said the reason he attended the webinar is because he is interested in hearing the perspectives of what he refers to as “influential” and “prominent” speakers. He has written a book about the nature of biological sex and it’s in the hands of reviewers now.

Wright said the webinar was advertised as a “multidisciplinary meeting of the minds on the topic of sex and gender in science and society” and that he was attending because he’s been writing about the topic for the past six years.

Wright also helps draft expert reports that clarify the biology of sex for lawmakers in both the United States and internationally.

“It is important that I understand how medical organizations are currently talking about sex and gender so that I can be appropriately informed on the topics,” Wright told The Fix.

Wright also said he wanted to attend the webinar because although it was advertised as “platforming multiple viewpoints,” he noticed the speakers were all “ideologically similar if not identical,” in a way that is contrary to what he writes about in publications like the City Journal.

MORE: Biologist criticizes anthropologists’ cancellation of panel on biological sex

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