A lawsuit brought by University of Wyoming sorority members over the participation of a transgender woman in their organization was dismissed Friday by a federal judge.
Seven members of Wyoming’s Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority sued the national sorority organization for admitting a biological male, Artemis Langford, into the group, who they claim is “peeping” on sorority girls and lives as a man. But a federal judge dismissed the case, writing that a court has no right to define what a woman is to a private organization.
“The University of Wyoming chapter voted to admit — and, more broadly, a sorority of hundreds of thousands approved — Langford,” the judge wrote.
“With its inquiry beginning and ending there, the Court will not define ‘woman’ today. 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,” the judge said.
“Holding that Plaintiffs fail to plausibly allege their derivative, breach of contract, tortious interference, and direct claims, the Court dismisses, without prejudice, Plaintiffs’ causes of action.”
Langford, 21, is a 6-foot-2, 260-pound transgender woman who joined the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority in September 2022.
The sorority members claimed in their complaint that the transgender woman often appears masculine, which makes roommates uncomfortable.
“Other than occasionally wearing women’s clothing, Langford makes little effort to resemble a woman,” their complaint states. “He has not undergone treatments to create a more feminine appearance, such as female hormones, feminization surgery, or laser hair removal. Plaintiffs often observe Langford with the facial hair one would expect on a man who either did not shave that morning or whose facial hair has regrown by the evening.”
Some of the sorority sisters spoke with media personality Megan Kelly this year.
“It’s a weird, gut-wrenching feeling that every time I leave my room, there’s a possibility that I’ll walk past him in the hall,” one woman said.
“So some girls live in constant fear in their home, and our home is supposed to be a safe space,” another said of women in the house who have reportedly experienced past sexual harassment.
The Wyoming sorority chapter filed a motion in June to dismiss the lawsuit.
“The central issue in this case is simple: Do the plaintiffs have a legal right to be in a sorority that excludes transgender women? They do not,” the motion read.
