Last January, we talked about the way Cancel Culture was making short work of evolutionary biologists who insist, correctly, that humans — classified as primate mammals — are sex binary. The transgender lobby showed no pity, even for those who had dedicated their careers to promoting Darwinism as the explanation for the history of life.*

We’d assumed that it was just cowardice that other evolutionary biologists did not stand up for them. But, believe it or not, the American Society for the Study of Evolution — the evolutionary biologists’ trade group — is digging in. In a letter protesting a recent executive order, “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism And Restoring Biological Truth To The Federal Government” the Society asserts,

Scientific consensus defines sex in humans as a biological construct that relies on a combination of chromosomes, hormonal balances, and the resulting expression of gonads, external genitalia and secondary sex characteristics. There is variation in all these biological attributes that make up sex. Accordingly, sex (and gendered expression) is not a binary trait. While some aspects of sex are bimodal, variation along the continuum of male to female is well documented in humans through hundreds of scientific articles. Such variation is observed at both the genetic level and at the individual level (including hormone levels, secondary sexual characteristics, as well as genital morphology). Beyond the incorrect claim that science backs up a simple binary definition of sex, the lived experience of people clearly demonstrates that the genetic composition at conception does not define one’s identity. Rather, sex and gender result from the interplay of genetics and environment. Such diversity is a hallmark of biological species, including humans. “February 7, 2025,”

Of course this is nonsense. Whether humans grow breasts or testicles is not a matter of “gendered expression” or “lived experience”; it’s governed by fundamental biological processes, as these people very well know.

Then they — the presidents, respectively, of the Society for the Study of Evolution, the American Society of Naturalists, and the Society of Systematic Biologists — dig themselves in deeper:

We note that you state that “Basing Federal policy on truth is critical to scientific inquiry, public safety, morale and trust in the government itself”. We agree with this statement. However, the claim that the definition of sex and the exclusion of gender identity is based on the best available science is false. Our three scientific societies represent over 3500 scientists, many of whom are experts on the variability that is found in sexual expression throughout the plant and animal kingdoms. “February 7, 2025,”

What happens “throughout the animal and plant kingdom” is not at issue. Clownfish, after all, are not getting their breasts removed as minors, as part of “gender affirmation surgery,” after being proselytized to believe that they were “born in the wrong body.”

One thing the learned societies are doing for sure is casting doubt on the value of evolutionary biology in a way that no Darwin doubter, however solid his argument, could.