Neil Whitehead

Dr. Neil Whitehead, an earthquake researcher masquerading as an expert on biology.

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Neil E. Whitehead aka Dr. Neil Whitehead is a discredited New Zealand earth scientist, author of My Genes Made Me Do It, and a former member of the gay-conversion therapy group NARTH who masquerades as an expert in biology and psychology. Whitehead argues that homosexuality has little biological basis, and argues that gay conversion therapy can successfully change homosexuals into heterosexuals.^[1] Whitehead has been heavily criticized by scientists for misrepresenting research, including the prominent psychiatrist Norman Doidge, geneticist William Rice and psychologist Warren Throckmorton. Whitehead's published scientific work consists of largely unimportant papers on earthquakes and weather. In 2018, Whitehead attempted to publish a junk-science paper promoting gay conversion therapy in a religious based "scientific journal", which was later retracted.

False claims and pseudoscience

Neil Whitehead has made various unscientific and misleading claims about homosexuality. Whitehead states in one biography that most of his work was in 'nuclear science' and in other areas it is stated he is an 'earth scientist', giving him no credibility on the topic of homosexuality.^[2] He is also religiously motivated and has numerous ties to NARTH.

False claims about neuroplasticity

Whitehead pushed the false idea that homosexuality is merely a result of "brain plasticity" and that people "learn" to be gay through repeat exposure to homosexuality and that this bulks up certain regions in the brain. He makes the argument that because London taxi drivers have enlarged regions of the brain dealing with navigation, anything we do repetitively can bulk up regions of the brain, thus ingraining homosexual attraction. He further said "taxi drivers were not born that way!".^[3] His claims were discredited by Professor of Psychology Warren Throckmorton. Same-sex attraction, and having gay sex, does not "bulk up" certain parts of the brain in the same way that heterosexual sex does not bulk up parts of the brain. The region of the brain associated with navigation is completely separate from that associated with sexual attraction. Whitehead embarrasses himself because he has no clue what he is talking about.^[4] Professor Throckmorton is himself an evangelical Christian and has been one of most outspoken critics of Whitehead.

Whitehead further misrepresented the work of Norman Doidge, a famed psychiatrist and author of the best-selling book The Brain That Changes Itself. Doidge wrote in his book about a gay man who noticed he was finding different types of men attractive from his normal 'type', but Whitehead selectively cut the quote so that it seemed like Doidge had said gay men could change their attraction to a different gender altogether. Doidge refuted Whitehead for this false claim and for intentionally misrepresenting his findings in order to suit his agenda.^[5]

False claims about epigenetics

Whitehead distorted the scientific research of geneticist William Rice.^[6] Rice's research surrounds epigenetics as a cause of homosexuality, a more complex explanation than genes alone, which involves hormonal shifts to genes. Whitehead falsely claimed that Rice's model explains "only 10-14 percent of the factors [of homosexuality] to genetics or epigenetics. That leaves the remaining 85 percent or so of the factors to environmental influences". Professor Warren Throckmorton contacted William Rice, who said this was false and that his model explained homosexuality in general. Throckmorton notes that Whitehead appears to not even have read the original paper. It appears that Whitehead may have entirely fabricated his claim that epigenetics explains just "10-14%" of homosexuality. Whitehead's claim was also republished on the Christian Post which was later corrected. Whitehead also evidently believes that any other factor outside of epigenetics must somehow be entirely social-environmental, and he completely ignores the most agreed-to idea that homosexuality is a result of a complex relationship between genes, hormones, non-social environmental and environmental factors.^[6]

Lying about scientific consensus

The Whiteheads proudly boast that "over 10,000 scientific papers and publications were consulted in the writing" of My Genes Made Me Do It!.^[7] However, the book actually only makes about 400 citations, most of which have nothing to do with the science of homosexuality and are simply citations to unrelated science, outdated surveys, or conversion therapy junk science. It's unlikely that two people could even read or examine 10,000 papers and publications prior to writing a book. Given the book's obvious inaccuracies, this seems like a desperate attempt to seem credible. Whitehead largely ignores the evidence indicating biological causes for homosexuality, thought to be a complex relationship between genetics, epigenetics, prenatal hormones in the womb, and other non-social environmental factors. Meta-analyses of the body of scientific research have shown that social environmental factors are very weak predictors of homosexuality, and most of the theories surrounding these such as "distant fathers" and molestation were rejected and debunked decades ago. The vast majority of gay men were not molested and had normal and healthy relationships with their fathers, and many heterosexual men have bad relationships with their fathers and were molested. Research does, however, indicate that feminine boys are much more likely to be rejected or physically abused by their fathers and peers, indicating these factors in a minority of gay men are a result of their homosexuality rather than the cause of their homosexuality.^[8]

Junk science

Whitehead refers to the work of Paul Cameron as a source throughout his book. Paul Cameron was famously expelled from the American Psychological Association for tampering with research data, kicked out of a courtroom for "misrepresentations" and fraud in his data, and once claimed that lesbians are "300 times more likely to die in a car crash".^[9]

Whitehead's "scientific" article was retracted

In 2018, one of Whitehead's articles on reparative therapy was included in The Linacre Quarterly, published by the Catholic Medical Association (CMA). However, not long after publishing Whitehead's article, the journal retracted it for issues dealing with the validity of its methodology.^[10] The CMA has promoted conversion therapy and appears to ignore the huge volume of scientific evidence that reparative therapy is both a harmful and ineffective practice. Even Whitehead's work wasn't up to their standards.^[11] For a study to be retracted it reflects serious problems, and authors of retracted papers have a very big gap to fill in order to restore their credibility.

Lack of qualifications

Neil Whitehead states that his scientific work has mostly covered nuclear radiation, and a NARTH publication states that he is an earth scientist. This makes him a completely unreliable source on homosexuality. Neil Whitehead has no academic papers published with regard to sexual orientation. Whitehead co-authored a paper that endorsed reparative therapy, which wasn't even up to the standards of the Catholic Medical Association, resulting in it being retracted (a huge embarrassment in academic literature).^[12] Whitehead's published articles are largely related to earthquakes and nuclear radiation, mostly published in the 1980s, and are largely irrelevant. Whitehead's claims about sexual orientation are outside of his field and almost entirely pseudoscientific.

Other strange claims

On his website, Whitehead writes: "surveys put the number of practising gay/bisexual men who are married [to women] at about 15%, putting wives at risk"<,ref name="myths"></ref> contradicting his entire argument that homosexuals should be in heterosexual relationships and "can change".

Whitehead wrote that "all [gays and lesbians] are prone to suicide attempts",^[13] which is demonstrably false. The CDC states that the majority of gays and lesbians have and maintain good mental health, though they are at greater risk for mental health problems. Stigma, homophobia, and pseudoscientists who push conversion therapy narratives might contribute to that.^[14]

Whitehead once claimed he wanted "more earthquakes" to strike his local city, so that he could do "more research".^[15]

See also

• My Genes Made Me Do It - book by Neil E. Whitehead
• National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality
• Conversion therapy

Notes

• Whitehead also goes by the names "NE Whitehead", "N E Whitehead", "Dr Neil Whitehead Phd" in some of his publications.
• My Genes Made Me Do It is also available as a free PDF, and different versions include different claims.

References