Federal Judge Dismisses Trans Sorority Case, Again
After years of back and forth, a lawsuit about a trans girl in a sorority has finally been dismissed with prejudice.
by Aly Gibbs
This is an era of, first and foremost, losses. We’ve watched, week after week, as institutions and entities that should have fought to protect us fail us by capitulating to the demands of malevolent actors, or outright abandon any claim to progressivism to join the metaphorical (or, perhaps, not so metaphorical) dark side.
As a result, it’s even more of a delight when I get to share some good news with you all for a change! After two full years, a federal judge has ruled that a University of Wyoming sorority chapter is allowed to admit absolutely whoever they want as a member, including transgender women.
Evan Urquhart (illustrious founder of Assigned Media and six time back-to-back Big E competitive flapjack flipping champion, nondenominational category) has been reporting on this case for Assigned since early 2023, when seven members of the UW chapter of sorority Kappa Kappa Gamma filed an initially anonymous complaint against their own sorority after the admittance of the sorority’s first openly transgender sister, Artemis Langford, in September of 2022. The complaint alleged that Langford’s inclusion “undermined the sorority’s core purpose by comparing the experiences of women with those of transgender individuals,” while much of the conservative coverage of the event included unsubstantiated claims of sexual perversion on Langford’s part, a common smear tactic used against innocent LGBTQ+ people in malicious reporting and litigation.
By mid-April the case was underway, and the plaintiffs had been denied the anonymity they initially requested by District Court Judge Alan B. Johnson. It was publicly revealed that each party of the complaint was a then-current member of KKG, listed in the amended complaint as: Jaylyn Westenbroek, Hannah Holtmeier, Allison Coghan, Grace Choate, Madeline Ramar, and Megan Kosar. The girls went on Megyn Kelly’s talkshow not long after they were publicly outed as bigots, sneeringly explaining that they simply hated the sight of a transgender woman in their sorority house, and as such they believed that KKG should be legally compelled to exclude all transgender women from their sorority.
Their beliefs, unsurprisingly, were not the majority view. Besides the fact that any KKG sister must be confirmed by majority vote, former Vice President of Standards at Arizona State University’s chapter of KKG, Julia Rome, expressed her support for Langford, and her disappointment in KKG sisters for litigating against the sorority.
“I really feel for Artemis and I can’t imagine what she’s going through. I hope she knows that there are Kappas who are behind her,” Rome said at the time, speaking as an out lesbian herself. “I hope she has support over there from other sisters.”
Judge Johnson’s initial verdict came in August of 2023, a 41-page decision that cleared KKG of any wrongdoing and allowed Langford to remain a sister of the sorority. Johnson’s ruling, ironically enough, was founded on a 2000 Supreme Court decision that allowed Boy Scouts of America to discriminate against openly gay scoutmasters. Johnson found that the courts had no express right to interfere in either organization’s internal policies.
Dismissing the case without prejudice (and thus allowing it to be refiled), Johnson cautioned the plaintiffs against refiling without evidence of wrongdoing, saying, “If Plaintiffs wish to amend their complaint, the Court advises Plaintiffs that they devote more than 6% of their complaint to their legal claims against Defendants.”
That’s what you get when your lawsuit is chiefly comprised of vitriol against a transgender woman’s appearance and behavior, I guess!
The case’s dismissal didn’t stop right wing outlets from publishing lies about Langford, but around the same time, a wonderful profile on her was published by WyoFile’s Maggie Mullen, who, like us, has been covering the case for years now. Langford spoke honestly and at length about accepting herself as trans while raised in a Mormon household, the fears she experienced as her story went national overnight, and her hopes for a more peaceful future.
Unfortunately, things only got weirder from there. A second suit was filed against KKG, this time in Ohio, by former members who had their membership terminated for publicly disparaging Langford. That suit was later moved to Judge Johnson’s court to comply with first-to-file rules, as a result of its similarity to the original Wyoming complaint. The plaintiffs of the first suit tried to appeal Judge Johnson’s decision, but were informed that they could not do so because the case was dismissed without prejudice, and that they could request a dismissal with prejudice so that they could appeal again or submit an amended complaint.
But by January of this year, upon requesting an update on the plaintiffs’ intentions moving forward, Judge Johnson was given the legal equivalent of a shrug. The plaintiffs’ lawyer stated that he didn’t “have an answer,” and that the plaintiffs were in “various places in their lives,” and that he would have to check with them to determine what their plans regarding the case were. In May, at KKG’s request, Johnson issued a 30-day deadline before the case would be fully dismissed, leaving the plaintiffs no option to refile. Then, just a few weeks later, the Trump administration, as part of a crusade to enforce their own interpretation of Title IX against states like Maine and California, announced that they would be investigating UW over Langford’s acceptance at KKG. May Mailman, former representation for the sisters who sued Langford and KKG, is credited with helping Stephen Miller construct the executive order that Trump now uses as a cudgel. She recently departed the White House after spending nearly a decade as a part of Trump’s inner circle.
UW, for their part, maintained that sorority membership was a sorority issue, and that they had no involvement.
Finally, last Friday, Judge Johnson issued a final dismissal for the case against Langford and KKG, ruling, “Having considered the issues presented (again), we find that the majority of the claims must be dismissed on the grounds that this Court still may not interfere with Kappa’s contractually valid interpretation of its own Bylaws.”
Because their case has now been dismissed with prejudice, the plaintiffs are allowed to file an appeal that would go to the Supreme Court. It’s unclear at this time whether or not they plan to do that, given the Trump administration’s moves against UW, but hopefully they decide to cut their losses and leave Artemis Langford the fuck alone.
Unfortunately, damage has been done. Langford, now a UW graduate, interviewed with Wyoming Public Radio recently and described the lawsuit as having ruined her life. She describes regular panic attacks and insomnia, receiving death threats, and experiencing some really dark moments.
Thanks to personal attacks and broader anti-trans legislation in Wyoming, Langford has plans to leave the state in the near future, but she says that she doesn’t regret joining KKG because of the love and support she was given by her peers in Greek life.
Aly Gibbs (She/They), formerly Alyssa Steinsiek, is a trans writer who reports on news important to the queer community.
