Several female members of the Kappa Kappa Gamma chapter at the University of Wyoming filed an appeal Monday after a court dismissed their lawsuit regarding a biological male who was allowed into their sorority house, according to court documents.
A judge ruled in August that the national organization of Kappa Kappa Gamma has the right to determine its own definition of women for its sororities and did not violate the rules by allowing biological male Artemis Langford, who identifies as female, into the chapter. In their first filing, the plaintiffs also listed Langford as one of the defendants, but the appeal only lists the housing organization, the chapter and Kappa Kappa Gamma President Mary Pat Rooney, according to court documents. (RELATED: MSNBC Host Gushes Over ‘Brave And Unique’ Trans Sorority ‘Sister’ Who Got Erections Ogling Women)
“Our battle has only begun, and we are all very excited that IWLC has decided to support and join us in this fight to protect women’s spaces,” the women involved in the lawsuit said in a statement. “With their support, we can continue to fight for the women that deserve respect in the present and in the future.”
A spokesperson for Kappa Kappa Gamma told the Daily Caller News Foundation that they were “confident” the previous ruling would be “upheld.”
The sorority filed the original complaint in March following Langford’s admission in October 2022, claiming that Langford had been watching the women undress and had gotten a “visible erection.” Prior to moving into the house, Langford also allegedly took photos of some of the girls during a slumber party and did not want to leave until after they fell “asleep.”
The University Family statue, by artist Robert Russin, stands on the University of Wyoming campus in Laramie, Wyoming, on August 13, 2022. (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
The appeal does not mention the reason for dropping Langford from the lawsuit, according to court documents.
In their complaint, the women argue that men don’t “become a woman just because he tells others that he has a female ‘gender identity’” and further argued that the sorority had “betrayed the central purpose and mission of Kappa Kappa Gamma by conflating the experience of being a woman with the experience of men engaging in behavior generally associated with women,” according to the lawsuit.
Judge Alan B. Johnson of the United States District Court for the District of Wyoming, however, did not agree and wrote that he would “not be defining the word ‘woman’ today,” according to the ruling. He also claimed that he was not going to “invade Kappa Kappa Gamma’s freedom of expressive association” by adopting the plaintiffs’ definition of woman.
“Defining ‘woman’ is Kappa Kappa Gamma’s bedrock right as a private, voluntary organization – and one this Court may not invade,” the decision reads.
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