(National Review) Female University of Wyoming students who recently sued their sorority for inducting a male student are speaking out about the case for the first time, telling National Review that they were “blindsided” by the decision, which has stoked bitter division within the once tight-knit sisterhood.
Seven plaintiffs, all members of Wyoming’s Kappa Kappa Gamma chapter, petitioned the court in March to order KKG to nullify the transgender-identifying man’s admission and abandon its unauthorized gender-inclusion policy. Their claim alleges that KKG national headquarters breached its contract to provide a single-sex experience to its members after its president unilaterally instructed chapters to admit male members without going through the requisite process to change the organization’s bylaws.
In April, U.S. District Court Judge Alan B. Johnson denied the young women’s request for anonymity as a condition for proceeding with the case, which is still being adjudicated.
Forced into the public eye by the judge’s order, plaintiffs Katie Fisher, Madeline Remar, Allison Coghan, and Hannah Holtmeier explained in an interview why they felt compelled to fight for the historic gender exclusivity of their sisterhood.
“They changed the way they defined ‘woman’ without changing our bylaws or rules. They came out with a guide to support the LGBTQ community,” Holtmeier said. “When it came out, they were just expecting us to follow suit and say, ‘We totally agree, that’s what a woman is.’ They can’t change their definition of a woman and expect us to change ours.”
KKG’s male member, sophomore Artemis Langford, stands 6′ 2″ tall and weighs 260 pounds, according to the complaint obtained by National Review.
Langford 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 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 said.
After fudging the rules to admit male members, national headquarters has bent over backwards to accommodate Langford, the plaintiffs claim.
For their sophomore year, KKG members sign a one-year contract to move into the sorority house, binding them financially. 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.”
Following the lead of their national headquarters, chapter leaders also fudged established rules to secure Langford’s admission, according to the plaintiffs.
Langford, according to the women, had already attempted to secure a spot in the sorority during regular recruitment in the fall of 2022. However, he was dropped during formal rush because he didn’t leave a strong impression on the members he met. He tried again during the informal process, called “continuous open bidding” (COB), during which the chapter courts interested students through meetups to test for compatibility with the sorority.
The chapter’s membership chair assured members that the vote on Langford’s admittance would be anonymous and would have to be unanimous for him to be admitted. However, the online ballot asked members to identify themselves with their emails, which intimidated some women who felt uncomfortable with a male joining the sorority but didn’t want to be accused of transphobia.
Fisher, a freshman Kappa who was in the same pledge class as Langford, said that new members were left in the dark when it came to how COB worked and the likelihood of its resulting in a bid for the male student.
“I felt we were lied to. We were told that a transgender member was going through rush and, if we had any concerns, to go talk to our membership chair. She said there was a 99.9 percent chance he would not get in,” Remar said. Then out of nowhere, the leadership circulated a message in the sorority group chat announcing Langford’s acceptance, she said.
