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University of Wyoming Sorority Girl Speaks Out on Transgender Pledge: ‘He’s Just Calling Himself a Girl’
Sorority members who objected to the male student’s admission were accused of being bigots.
On Monday, September 19, a Google form landed in the email inboxes of students belonging to the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. The members were asked to vote on the admission of two prospective pledges. Among them was male student Artemis Langford, who identifies as a woman.
Earlier that day, KKG held a meeting to discuss Langford’s candidacy. Chapter leaders, including the president and membership chair, dismissed the concerns of members who felt deeply uncomfortable with a male being accepted into their sisterhood, a KKG woman tells National Review. The senior women effectively pressured them to usher in Langford, she said.
“Regardless of what your political views are, our Kappa values are acceptance and kindness so if that is something that you disagree with, that’s not in line with Kappa values,” one member allegedly said at the meeting, according to the KKG source.
“It’s 2022. If you vote no, it better be for, like, literal issues with that new member or else it’s homophobic,” another member allegedly said. Other comments allegedly made by seniors were: “If your only concerns are about her living in the house, you are thinking too far down the road” and “If you have something to say about this that isn’t kind or respectful, keep it to yourself.”
The chapter announced later that it would be extending Langford a bid. He was subsequently welcomed into Kappa Kappa Gamma, whose official national bylaws allow the admission of any student who identifies as a female. The bylaws were changed to allow female-identifying men in 2022. To go with the revisions, KKG headquarters published a “Guide for Supporting Our LGBTQIA+ Members.” It noted that new member selection will apply to “women and individuals who identify as women whose governing documents do not discriminate in membership selection except by requiring good scholarship and ethical character.”
Langford, according to the woman, had already attempted to secure a spot in the sorority during regular recruitment between August 25 and 29. However, he was dropped during formal rush because he didn’t leave a strong impression, the woman claimed.
He tried again during the informal process, called Continuous Open Bidding (COB), during which the chapter courts interested students through meet-ups, usually to test for compatibility with the sorority. Langford joined through this loophole, even though the membership chair allegedly told members that there was a “99.9% chance we won’t be offering Artemis a bid” via COB, the source said.
While the membership chair assured members that the vote would be anonymous, and would have to be unanimous in order for Langford to be admitted, the online ballot asked members to identify themselves with their emails, which intimidated women who felt uncomfortable with a male joining the sorority.
“We also don’t know if he had enough votes because they haven’t told us that,” the source said.
After the news spread across campus, Langford spoke on behalf of the sorority to the school newspaper, the Branding Iron, to share his story, in violation of a rule prohibiting members from communicating with the press, the source added.
“I feel so glad to be in a place that I think not only shares my values, but to be in a sisterhood of awesome women that want to make history,” Langford told the publication. “They want to break the glass ceiling, trailblazing you know, and I certainly feel that as their first trans member, at least in the chapter in Wyoming history.”
The chapter president admitted that Langford received a special carve-out from the restriction against taking media interviews. “The Kappa related interview in the branding iron today was approved by headquarters. Headquarters has denied anyone else, myself included, from being interviewed at this time,” she wrote in a group chat to UW KKG members, according to a screenshot provided to NR.
Many of the KKG members, who the source said are scared to speak out of fear of retribution, feel that leadership is treating Langford as if he’s in a protected class and as if his membership matters more than theirs.
“They’re letting him run with whatever he wants in the newspaper but we’re subject to national guidelines. The rules don’t apply to him,” the source said.
In a sorority, some members often live together in close quarters. The KKG house can accommodate about 50 members, said the source. Until the house reaches full capacity, no member is allowed to live outside it, with certain exceptions. As of earlier this week, Langford was set to live in the house with the other women.
“He won’t be granted live-out and no one else will be even if they’re worried about living with him,” she said.
As for the bathroom situation, the chapter president has reportedly told the members to “use the one that Artemis doesn’t use.” But some of them use different bathrooms across the house for brushing their teeth vs. showering, potentially forcing them to interact with Langford in various states of undress.
Asked whether she believes that Langford has fully transitioned, the source said: “absolutely not.” A tall, heavier man with facial hair, Langford is a “big guy,” the source described. From her observations, “he has made no efforts to physically look like a girl.” It’s unclear whether he has started hormone treatment or had other procedures.
“He’s just calling himself a girl. All you have to do is identify as a she/her,” she said in reference to bylaws for both the headquarters and the Laramie chapter. Both sets of bylaws state that anyone who identifies as a woman by the time of initiation is eligible to join Kappa.
During initiation, all of the new pledges stay together for one night. While two of the twelve new recruits don’t have a problem with Langford sleeping in the same room with them, the other ten have objected, the source said.
Despite the apprehension of some members, the recommendation from the chapter’s president and vice president of standards has been to “drop out” if you want the sorority to remain exclusively female, the source claimed. She said many parents are furious with the leadership’s handling of the situation, especially since sororities are so expensive. If you’re a member who lives in the KKG house, for example, your payment to the national sorority is $4300 a semester. Many have emailed and called the national organization with complaints but have received the same cursory response, amounting to “we’re looking into it,” or no response at all, she said.
“I love Kappa and don’t want it to be run into the ground. But parents are threatening not to pay bills over how their daughters have been treated,” she said. “They are valuing his membership over anyone else’s and if you have a problem with that you’re an outcast.”
While she is disappointed in her chapter’s leadership, she is also disappointed in her fellow sisters, some of whom have called her a bigot over her opposition to Langford’s admission. “Other members obviously think we’re being transphobic. We’re being treated like dog s**t. We get glares in the hall,” she said.
“It’s an awful situation to be in. It’s scary, not knowing if I’m going to transfer out of the school next semester. I don’t want to go anywhere. But I will if it gets to that point,” the girl said.
The University of Wyoming, Kappa Kappa Gamma national headquarters, and Langford did not respond to requests for comment.