Judge Dismisses Wyoming Sorority Sisters’ Lawsuit Filed To Prevent Transgender Student From Becoming Member

A judge dismissed a lawsuit brought on by sorority members at the University of Wyoming.

The lawsuit was filed to block a transgender woman’s admission into the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, CBS News reported.

However, Wyoming U.S. District Court Judge Alan Johnson ruled that he would not veto the decision of a private organization, nor would he define “woman” for the sorority.

Back in March, six members of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority chapter challenged Artemis Langford‘s admission by legally questioning whether sorority rules allowed a transgender woman.

The case at Wyoming’s only four-year public university garnered national attention, including transgender people’s fight for more acceptance in schools, athletics, workplaces, and elsewhere. But not without pushback from others.

In June, leaders of the Gamma Omicron chapter filed a separate motion to dismiss, citing court precedent, all while highlighting that the plaintiffs were the “vocal minority.” Now, Johnson has moved to dismiss.

“The University of Wyoming chapter voted to admit — and, more broadly, a sorority of hundreds of thousands approved — Langford,” Johnson wrote in his ruling.

Since the sorority bylaws failed to define a woman, Johnson ruled that he could not impose the six sisters’ definition of a woman instead of the sorority’s more expansive definition provided in court, CBS News reported.

“With its inquiry beginning and ending there, the court will not define a ‘woman’ today,” Johnson wrote. “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.”

Langford’s attorney, Rachel Berkness, welcomed the ruling.

“The allegations against Ms. Langford should never have made it into a legal filing. 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 wrote in an email.

The sorority sisters who sued claimed Langford’s presence in their sorority house made them uncomfortable. Their lawsuit also portrayed Langford as a “sexual predator,” claiming that her behavior turned out to be “nothing more than a drunken rumor,” Berkness said.

An attorney for the sorority sisters, Cassie Craven, said by email they disagreed with the ruling and still brought up their main issue—the definition of 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 wrote.

The six sorority members told Megyn Kelly on her podcast in May that their sorority is an “only-female space.”

“It is so different than living in the dorms, for instance, where men and women can commingle on the floors. That is not the case in a sorority house. We share just a couple of main bathrooms on the upstairs floor,” one member told Kelly.

In the meantime, the nonprofit applauded the ruling, saying, “Kappa Kappa Gamma applauds the court’s ruling in Wyoming upholding a private organization’s right to choose their members,” the sorority said in a statement. “We look forward to moving past this lawsuit so we can continue the important work being done every day on behalf of all of our members.”