U.S. District Court Judge Alan Johnson in late August dismissed a lawsuit filed in March by seven sorority members against the national chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma, the national council president and biological male member Artemis Langford. The lawsuit alleges that Langford makes the female members – all but himself – uncomfortable in common spaces, CBS News reported.
Johnson in his written opinion said it wasn’t up to him to define “woman.” While refusing to offer a definition for the court, Johnson also criticized the plaintiff’s definition.
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“Plaintiffs request the court insert itself into this controversial political debate and declare that a private organization can only interpret the term ‘woman’ using Plaintiff’s exclusionary definition of biologically born females.”
The Kappa Kappa Gamma members, who attend the University of Wyoming, say there will be an appeal.
“We keep fighting. We’re not done,” a young woman identified only as “Allie” said on Fox News this week.
“There were a lot of things that did make the girls uncomfortable. That’s why this is so important for us to fight for. It’s a place where we’re supposed to be able to be and feel comfortable and not have to worry about outside things affecting us and be able to grow and just feel safe. That’s something that’s so important to young women. Having someone come and try and take that away, it’s not alright,” she said.
The attorney representing the sorority members who filed suit said Johnson made this a political issue.
“This isn’t a political debate. This is a biological reality,” Cassie Craven told Fox News.
Craven said the rise of the transgender agenda and its protectors are on course to “erase” women.
“Without any recourse we sought a determination in a court of law to look at the bylaws from a contractual and not political standpoint. It’s unfortunate because it’s been skewed into a conversation about inclusion, but this isn’t about transgender inclusion, this is about erasing women. Are we not entitled to any safe spaces? Title IX specifically exempts men from joining women’s sororities. We just sought to challenge what the sorority at the highest level had pushed through,” Craven said.
Abandoned by your own sisters
Langford’s presence is about more than making young women feel uncomfortable. It makes them feel threatened.
According to The Associated Press, the lawsuit describes a slumber party in which Langford became “sexually aroused” while watching other pledges change clothes.
Craven said the transgender movement is a lie.
“The lie is that being a woman is simply a game of semantics that one can play. By the admission of this individual he’s attracted to women, he’s autistic. There are legitimate concerns. In another environment all of these young women would be willing to be friends with this individual, but not when you’re talking about a sorority that’s communal space,” she said.
The local chapter has received no help from the national sisters. The lawsuit alleges that national officials pressured the Wyoming chapter to admit Langford. Rules were violated, the suit says, including one that governs the voting process to admit new members.
“The vote conducted to bring this individual in was illegal. They waited until many of the girls were absent from the house. They didn’t have a secret vote, as they were supposed to, and they refused to do a re-vote,” Craven said.
The school’s student newspaper, The Branding Iron, reported last October, shortly after Langford’s admission into Kappa Kappa Gamma, that he was excited to make history.
“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 newspaper. “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.”
It’s unclear how many trans members Kappa Kappa Gamma has nationwide, but national leadership is eager to embrace biological men living with its female sisters.
KKG has published its “Guide For Supporting Our LGBTQIA+ Members” which states “Kappa Kappa Gamma is a single-gender organization comprised of 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 does not live in the sorority house at this time, but the guide outlines suggested ways to accommodate biological males who choose to live in the house.
Among the suggestions are housing the male in a single room at no additional cost, designating restrooms the male is allowed to use and to designate a gender-neutral restroom in the house.
'Please tell me who I am'
For Langford, “coming out” was his response after a night of prayer.
Langford, raised in the Mormon faith by conservative parents, told the Wyoming news outlet WyoFile that he asked God, “Please tell me who I am. Am I really transgender?”
He followed with another prayer: “Just settle this issue once and for all.”
Langford, 21, told WyoFile he woke to a sense of peace the next morning and interpreted that to be God telling him he is transgender.
“It’s OK to be trans,” he recalled. “This is who I am.”
But is it OK at the expense of a sense of safety and security for others? The lower court ruling suggests so.
Craven says the sorority house has a “PJ (pajamas) Room that this individual has invited himself into. There’s some danger there. There’s some uncertainty there. This isn’t about denying someone’s existence or trying to make them feel bad. This is about a fundamental biological reality.”
