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Judge Sides With Trans Sorority Member Accused of Inappropriate Erection
Newsweek
Judge Sides With Trans Sorority Member Accused of Inappropriate Erection
BY MATTHEW IMPELLI ON 8/28/23 AT 12:31 PM EDT
A transgender sorority member accused of acting inappropriately towards other female members recently scored a legal victory.
On Friday, a federal judge in Wyoming dismissed a lawsuit that was brought by members of the Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority at the University of Wyoming attempting to have a transgender woman removed from the Greek life organization.
The dismissal by the judge comes shortly after members of the sorority the lawsuit against the the Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority and the transgender member, identified as Artemis Langford, saying that her membership should be voided over her gender.
In March, members of the Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority filed the lawsuit against the organization and Langford saying that Langford is a man and that “Kappa Kappa Gamma limits membership to women only. Under the Sorority’s Bylaws, every new member must be ‘a woman.’…A woman is an adult human female. An adult human male is not a woman, no matter how he chooses to describe himself.”
Over the past several months, transgender rights have remained a topic of conversation, with much controversy surrounding the idea of transgender women competing in female sports. In July, a non-binary individual was removed from a sorority at St. Lawrence University, prompting widespread criticism and discussion if the individual should be reinstated.
The lawsuit went on to state that Langford was admitted to the sorority through its council president and a vote from other members. However, after Langford was admitted to the sorority, many members said they felt unconformable by Langford’s behavior.
“Langford states that he is transgender and that he self-identifies as a woman. His behavior, however, does not reflect a man living as a woman let alone a man attempting to “consistently live” as a woman,” the complaint said. “Other than occasionally wearing women’s clothing, Langford makes little effort to resemble a woman. He has not undergone treatments to create a more feminine appearance, such as female hormones, feminization surgery, or laser hair removal. Plaintiffs often observe Langford with the facial hair one would expect on a man who either did not shave that morning or whose facial hair has regrown by the evening.”
The complaint also states that some members of the sorority felt uncomfortable by Langford’s behavior on several occasions and accused Langford of staring at women and having “an erection visible through his leggings.”
Additionally, the members of the sorority also alleged in the complaint that Langford stared at a woman in the sorority while she was changing and said that “Langford had become sexually aroused.”
Despite the claims made by the sorority members, a federal judge ruled against the attempts to have Langford’s membership voided from the Kappa Kappa Gamma chapter at the University of Wyoming.
“The University of Wyoming chapter voted to admit – and, more broadly, a sorority of hundreds of thousands approved – Langford. With its inquiry beginning and ending there, the Court will not define “woman” today. The delegate of a private, voluntary organization interpreted “woman”, otherwise undefined in the nonprofit’s bylaws, expansively; this Judge may not invade Kappa Kappa Gamma’s freedom of expressive association and inject the circumscribed definition Plaintiffs urge,” the judge said. “Holding that Plaintiffs fail to plausibly allege their derivative, breach of contract, tortious interference, and direct claims, the Court dismisses, without prejudice, Plaintiffs’ causes of action.”
In a statement to WyoFile, a lawyer for Langford responded to the dismissal saying, “We are elated that the Court saw the allegations against Ms. Langford our way: as unsubstantiated and unbefitting of a federal court. As Ms. Langford outlined in her Motion to Dismiss, the allegations against her were largely unrelated to any legal claims the plaintiffs raised.”
“Ms. Langford can now return to campus and focus on being a student rather than having to worry about potentially defending herself against bogus claims,” the statement added.
A lawyer for the members of the sorority who filed the lawsuit told Newsweek in a statement that “The Court’s opinion reflects an idea that the Plaintiffs cannot agree with. Women’s rights do mean something. Women have a biological reality that deserves to be protected and recognized and we will continue to fight for that right just as women suffragists for decades have been told that their bodies, opinions, and safety doesn’t matter. The Court stated it would not define what a ‘woman’ is. The fundamental issue has remained undecided.”
Newsweek reached out to lawyers for Langford, the sorority members and the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority via email for comment.
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