Richard Dawkins leaves FFRF board after it pulled article opposing transgender ideology
Prominent atheist evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins has left the board of a noted secular advocacy group after it took down an article unleashing support for the traditional definition and understanding of sex.
Dawkins, 83, stepped down from the honorary board of the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation, an atheist legal organization that advocates for a strong separation of church and state.
Dawkins' departure comes after FFRF pulled an article titled "Biology is Not Bigotry" from its FreeThought Now blog following backlash from LGBT activists.
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The "Biology is Not Bigotry" article, written by honorary board member Jerry Coyne and published on Dec. 26, was a response to a previous FreeThought Now piece titled "What is a Woman?" As Coyne explained, the article titled "What is a Woman?" concluded that "A woman is whoever she says she is."
Coyne vehemently pushed back on this analysis.
"This of course is a tautology, and still leaves open the question of what a woman really is. And the remarkable redefinition of a term with a long biological history can be seen only as an attempt to force ideology onto nature," Coyne wrote.
"Because some nonbinary people — or men who identify as women ('transwomen') — feel that their identity is not adequately recognized by biology, they choose to impose ideology onto biology and concoct a new definition of 'woman.'"
Coyne's article defended the biological definition of a woman as "an adult human female" and elaborated on the consequences of failing to recognize the biological differences between males and females, specifically highlighting the domination of women's sports by trans-identified male athletes. He concluded by stating, "It is not 'transphobic' to accept the biological reality of binary sex and to reject concepts based on ideology."
"One should never have to choose between scientific reality and trans rights," he added. "Transgender people should surely enjoy all the moral and legal rights of everyone else. But moral and legal rights do not extend to areas in which the 'indelible stamp' of sex results in compromising the legal and moral rights of others."
Coyne insisted that "Transgender women, for example, should not compete athletically against biological women; should not serve as rape counselors and workers in battered women's shelters; or, if convicted of a crime, should not be placed in a women's prison."
Coyne contends FFRF's "incursion into gender activism takes it far outside its historically twofold mission: educating the public about nontheism and keeping religion out of government and social policies." Asserting that "tendentious arguments about the definition of sex are not part of either mission," Coyne maintained that "sex and gender have little to do with theism or the First Amendment."
Referring to the embrace of a "progressive" viewpoint on sex and gender as part of a "battle against Christian nationalism," Coyne wrote, "Mission creep has begun to erode other once-respected organizations like the ACLU and SPLC, and I would be distressed if this happened to the FFRF."
On Dec. 27, FFRF Co-Presidents Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor released a statement describing their publication of the post as "an error of judgment."
"We have decided to remove it as it does not reflect our values or principles," they wrote.
The removal of Coyne's post from the FFRF website prompted Dawkins to resign from the board on Dec. 29. Coyne shared the contents of the email Dawkins sent to Barker and Gaylor announcing his departure on his personal blog.
"It is with real sadness, because of my personal regard for you both, that I feel obliged to resign from the Honorary Board of FFRF," he wrote. "Publishing the silly and unscientific 'What is a Woman' article by Kat Grant was a minor error of judgment, redeemed by the decision to publish a rebuttal by a distinguished scientist from the relevant field, namely Biology, Jerry Coyne."
"But alas, the sequel was an act of unseemly panic when you caved in to hysterical squeals from predictable quarters and retrospectively censored that excellent rebuttal," he added. "Moreover, to summarily take it down without even informing the author of your intention was an act of lamentable discourtesy to a member of your own Honorary Board. A Board which I now leave with regret."
Coyne, who considers himself a "liberal atheist," also stepped down from the FFRF honorary board, as did Canadian psychologist and psycholinguist Steve Pinker. Coyne shared the contents of Pinker's resignation email, which accused FFRF of embracing characteristics of organized religion, which it claims to oppose.
"With this action, the Foundation is no longer a defender of freedom from religion but the imposer of a new religion, complete with dogma, blasphemy, and heretics. It has turned its back on reason: if your readers' wrongfully perceive' the opposite of a clear statement that you support the expression of contesting opinions, the appropriate response is to stand by your statement, not ratify their error."
Pinker argues that FFRF "has turned the names Freethought Today and Freethought Now into sad jokes, inviting ridicule from its worst foes. And it has shown contempt for the reasoned advice of his own board members."
In response to the resignations, the FFRF leaders pushed back against the criticism and believed such departures were likely "inevitable" amid growing differences in beliefs on sexuality and gender.
"We have had the greatest respect for Richard Dawkins and Steven Pinker, and are grateful that they sat on our honorary board for so many years," Barker and Gaylor said in a statement shared with The Telegraph.
"We do not feel that support for LGBTQ rights against the religious backlash in the United States is mission creep. This growing difference of opinion probably made such a parting inevitable."
Dawkins has repeatedly spoken out against the rejection of traditional definitions of sex by LGBT activists and the idea that it is possible to change one's sex. In a 2023 appearance on "Piers Morgan Uncensored," Dawkins proclaimed, "As a biologist, there are two sexes and that's all there is to it."
In 2021, Dawkins signed a "Declaration on Women's Sex-based rights," which pushed back on laws that define the term "mother" to include people who are not biologically female.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
