Judge dismisses lawsuit against Artemis Langford brought by six members of KKG sorority at University of Wyoming, saying that the court will not get involved in what constitutes a female.
Define what a woman is? A judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought forward by sorority members at the University of Wyoming to block a transgender woman from joining, despite previous allegations the student was a ‘sexual predator’ physically around while around them.
Since the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority bylaws do not define what a ‘woman’ is, Wyoming US District Court Judge Alan Johnson ruled he could not proceed forward with the lawsuit and dismissed the matter on Friday, according to reports.
‘With its inquiry beginning and ending there, the court will not define a ‘woman’ today,’ Johnson wrote.
Court rules that six members must lobby sorority
Johnson ruled that a federal court could not interfere with the sorority chapter’s freedom of association by ruling against its vote to induct trans student Artemis Langford last year.
According to Johnson, Kappa Kappa Gamma has both a First Amendment right and the latitude to determine its own bylaws, including how to define ‘woman.’ Instead of petitioning the courts, he said the women needed to go through the sorority if they wanted to remove Langford, though Johnson noted that UW’s chapter chose to admit and induct Langford despite the six sorority sisters, their families and their lawyers spending months trying to ‘overrule the UW chapter’s decision.’
‘The University of Wyoming chapter voted to admit — and, more broadly, a sorority of hundreds of thousands approved — Langford,’ Johnson wrote in his ruling.
‘The delegate of a private, voluntary organization interpreted ‘woman,’ otherwise undefined in the nonprofit’s bylaws, expansively; this Judge may not invade Kappa Kappa Gamma’s freedom of expressive association and inject the circumscribed definition Plaintiffs urge.’
‘Cruel rumors’
News of the judge siding with the trans student was received warmly by Langford.
‘I’m grateful that it’s over and I can get back to being a student,’ Langford told the Casper Star Tribune in a statement. ‘I’m grateful for everyone’s support – this has been a hard time. I hope this helps other students who are LGBTQ+ avoid the kind of scrutiny I’ve been under and we can be who we are.’
Rachel Berkness, Langford’s attorney, also welcomed the court’s ruling.
‘The allegations against Ms. Langford should never have made it into a legal filing,’ Berkness said in an email to the Associated Press.
‘They are nothing more than cruel rumors that mirror exactly the type of rumors used to vilify and dehumanize members of the LGBTQIA+ community for generations. And they are baseless,’ Berkness stated in the email.
The case at Wyoming’s only four-year public university garnered national attention as ongoing issues over the years involving transgender rights for students in schools and athletics have sparked major debate nationwide.
Lawsuit was cause of the right
The case became a cause célèbre on the right, with sorority members Jaylyn Westenbroek, Hannah Holtmeier, Allison Coghan, Grace Choate, Madeline Ramar and Megan Kosar, who initially tried to bring the lawsuit anonymously, appearing on right-wing outlets like Fox News.
‘[W]e’re fighting for the importance of women’s spaces and what it truly means to be a woman. We were promised from the beginning that we would have a sisterhood, meaning only females, and our national sorority has failed us,’ Ms Westenbroek told the outlet earlier this year.
The six members filed the lawsuit in March against the national sorority organization, its national council president, and Langford — who joined their chapter in September 2022.
The sorority members were seeking to have a judge void Langford’s Kappa Kappa Gamma membership and award unspecified damages.
Kari Kittrell Poole, the executive director of the sorority, told the Associated Press in May that the lawsuit ‘contains numerous false allegations’ without specifying them.
She added that Kappa Kappa Gamma, which has over250,000 members in 140 chapters across the United States and Canada, does not discriminate against gender identity.
Define what constitutes a woman?
The lawsuit alleged that members felt uneasy around Langford — identified under the male pseudonym Terry Smith in the suit — with one member allegedly witnessing Langford get physically aroused.
‘Mr. Smith has, while watching members enter the sorority house, had an erection visible through his leggings,‘ the suit claimed. ‘Other times, he has had a pillow in his lap.’
Berkness shared that claims about her client’s behavior and being labeled a ‘sexual predator’ were nothing more than a ‘drunken rumor’ following the suit’s dismissal.
The six sorority members appearing on the Kelly Mygan podcast show previously said that they ‘live in constant fear in our home’ with Langford present and that the trans student would stare at women without talking for hours.
Cassie Craven, an attorney representing the sorority sisters, said her clients disagree with the ruling — and that the sorority chapter lacks a proper definition of who should be classified as a woman.
‘Women have a biological reality that deserves to be protected and recognized, and we will continue to fight for that right just as women suffragists for decades have been told that their bodies, opinions, and safety doesn’t matter,’ Craven told AP.
Momentum has since begun to force Kappa Kappa Gamma on changing its bylaws to ‘adequately define’ what a woman is for potential issues in the future.
