KKG argues that the plaintiffs’ definition of ‘woman’ is ‘exclusionary.’
The Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority is doubling down after being sued by several of its members for admitting a male student into its sisterhood, asking a court Tuesday to dismiss the “frivolous” lawsuit and implying that the plaintiffs are motivated by anti-trans bigotry.
In March, six female University of Wyoming students sued KKG and its president Mary Pat Rooney, arguing that their chapter’s decision to admit a man, Artemis Langford, violated the national organization’s corporate charter. The plaintiffs, Jaylyn Westenbroek, Hannah Holtmeier, Allison Coghan, Grace Choate, Madeline Ramar, and Megan Kosar, were anonymously referred to as “Jane Doe” in the original complaint but were denied anonymity by U.S. District Court Judge Alan Johnson.
In response, KKG alleges that the women asked the “Court to insert itself into this controversial political debate and declare that a private organization can only interpret the term ‘woman’ using Plaintiffs’ exclusionary definition of biologically born females,” according to a motion to dismiss obtained by National Review.
“What dismissal will do is establish that Plaintiffs’ legal claims are baseless and show their supporters and others who may seek to use the courts for their own political purposes that funding frivolous litigation is not the way to resolve disputes or effect change,” the motion reads.
The question of whether a transgender woman should be treated as a woman is not clear, KKG claims, given all of the “scholarly articles, political debate, or media commentary” contesting the traditional understanding of womanhood. Rather than affirm the women’s right to membership in a female-only sorority, KKG finds them at fault for protesting Langford’s admission.
“Do the Plaintiffs have a legal right to be in a sorority that excludes transgender women?” KKG writes in the motion. “They do not.”
In the fall of 2022, sorority members at the school were pressured into endorsing the initiation of Langford, National Review previously reported. In September, KKG members received a Google form via email asking them to vote on Langford’s admission. Chapter leaders, including the president and membership chairwoman, held a meeting at which they belittled members who felt deeply uncomfortable with a male being initiated. One member allegedly claimed that to deny Langford a bid would oppose “Kappa values” and encouraged dissenters to quit the chapter.
The online vote asked members to identify themselves with their emails, in violation of the sorority’s secret-ballot procedures. Only a unanimous vote could grant Langford admission, and chapter leadership was required to disclose the final vote tally. Neither of these conditions was met. Chapter leaders announced that Langford had been invited to be a Kappa without confirming that all current members approved. In the complaint, the plaintiffs alleged that the organization pushed them to resign over their opposition to Langford’s admission, depriving them of Greek-life participation since their Kappa membership disqualified them from switching sororities.
KKG’s motion to dismiss similarly encourages the plaintiffs to resign from the sorority if they object to the organization’s “position of inclusion.”
“Plaintiffs can also resign their membership in the organization if a position of inclusion is too offensive to their personal values,” the motion said. “What they cannot do is have this Court define their sorority’s membership for them.”
While it disagrees with the plaintiffs ideologically, KKG also writes that the Court should reject their claims for “being legally defective.”
The plaintiffs told National Review that KKG in 2018 issued a “Guide for Supporting our LGBTQIA+ Members,” declaring that the sorority welcomes both “women” and “individuals who identify as women.”
However, the Tuesday motion claims that “Kappa’s policy since 2015 has been to allow chapters to accept transgender women.” KKG insists that it could not have possibly violated its own bylaws by blessing Langford’s bid because, “No Kappa bylaw defines who qualifies as a ‘woman.’”
But the plaintiffs argue that KKG’s president unilaterally changed admissions criteria by issuing the 2018 LGBTQ guide, rather than officially amending the bylaws through a vote at the national convention. This workaround effectively redefined what “woman” meant, they said.
In its Tuesday motion, KKG reduces the plaintiffs’ objections to mere anti-trans bigotry. “Plaintiffs are upset that Langford was accepted for membership into their chapter because she is transgender, so they hired legal counsel,” it wrote.
Langford started participating in sorority recruitment in spring 2022. While meeting members of the Delta Delta Delta sorority, Langford allegedly shared his interest in cadavers and touching human corpses, the complaint claimed. Langford repeatedly asked whether he could live in the sorority house but dodged questions about his hobbies and goals, a witness who chatted with him during the week’s events recalled, according to the complaint.
Langford stands 6′ 2″ tall and weighs 260 pounds. He has not taken steps to transition, the complaint states; he still carries a driver’s license that identifies him as a male, wears women’s clothing only occasionally, and has refrained from treatments such as hormone therapy, feminization surgery, and laser hair removal.
Langford is also sexually interested in women, the plaintiffs allege, using Tinder to meet them. Witnesses cited in the complaint said they’ve seen Langford sitting alone in private areas of the sorority house, where he can get a close look at women walking by, with a visible erection. Sometimes, a pillow sits on Langford’s lap, the witnesses said.
“There definitely have been awkward interactions and creepy, weird moments, but that proves why we’re doing this and speaking out, for other girls with the same situation where a biological man is in a sorority house or locker room with women,” Holtmeier, one of the plaintiffs, previously told National Review.
Langford was set to live in the sorority house alongside KKG’s female members after being inducted but was later was granted an exemption to live off-campus. The chapter president allegedly told worried members to use the bathroom in the house “that Artemis doesn’t use,” a KKG source told National Review in October 2022.
The lawsuit also names as a defendant KKG’s Building Co., which provides the sorority’s housing on the University of Wyoming campus. For their sophomore year, KKG members sign a one-year contract to move into the sorority house, binding them financially. The cost of each housing contract, including a year of board, rent, and maintenance, is $7,700 per member.
Langford’s previous comments and mannerisms left many women feeling uneasy about their living situation at the house, according to the complaint. The plaintiffs alleged that KKG violated existing female members’ housing contracts by giving Langford the option to inhabit the sorority house, though he ultimately chose not to.
Non-plaintiff KKG member Katie Fisher inquired with headquarters about having her contract revised to give her more freedom to live out of the house if Langford would be staying there.
“I emailed headquarters and said I couldn’t sign the live-in contract unless there was a promise of this individual not living in. They said, ‘Don’t worry about it, he’s been granted live out because of his safety concerns,’” she said. “Not because of the 40 girls currently living in, but just because this one man was uncomfortable. I asked her for an amendment or a clause to my contract saying that I’ll be released from any obligation, and headquarters refused to do that.”
In the motion, KKG claims the plaintiffs did not meet the $75,000 minimum damages requirement to establish subject-matter jurisdiction for the breach of contract claim against the Building Co.
“The Building Co. also has no role in member selection and, in fact, only serves the purpose of providing and maintaining the Gamma Omicron house at the University of Wyoming,” KKG says. “It is an independent non-profit Wyoming corporation and does not interact with Kappa on any non-housing issues.”