Judge Rules Kappa Kappa Gamma Can Interpret Own Bylaws

Artemis Langford, a trans woman whose sorority was sued for approving her, will start the new term with the case against her sorority dismissed.

by Evan Urquhart

Good news for anyone following the story of six mean sorority girls bent on harassing a trans fellow student: On Friday, August 25 a judge dismissed the lawsuit against Artemis Langford and her sorority. The suit sought to force Kappa Kappa Gamma to define woman in a way that would stop the national sorority from allowing transgender women, as well as force the expulsion of Langford from the University of Wyoming chapter she joined. The lawsuit spent most of its 72 pages smearing Langford’s appearance and conduct with ugly, stigmatizing language and slimy insinuations of inappropriate behavior. The most salacious insinuations were, naturally, covered extensively by the right-wing press.

U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson wrote a 41-page decision that is densely technical and difficult for a layperson to follow, one core aspect of the decision relies on a 2000 Supreme Court decision that allowed Boy Scouts of America to discriminate against openly gay scoutmasters, finding that the court had no right to interfere with the Boy Scouts’ internal policies.

In a similar way, Judge Johnson found that his court had no place substituting the six sorority girls’ preferred definition of woman for the one used by Kappa Kappa Gamma that included trans women as women and therefore eligible to join.

The case was dismissed without prejudice, meaning that it could be re-filed, so there is still a chance that some version of this case could go forward in the future. In a nod to the lawsuit’s obsession with the sorts of salacious details that made for right-wing news stories, Judge Johnson admonished the plaintiffs in a footnote to spend more time on the legal issues if they attempt to resubmit their complaint writing: “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. It also counsels Plaintiffs to provide more factual detail, where feasible, as well as highlight the Defendant( s) it sues under each count and relevant state statutes and authority.”

In addition to the good news of the lawsuit’s dismissal, there’s another positive development in this story, in the form of a profile of Langford by reporter Maggie Mullen that appeared last week in WyoFile, an independent nonprofit news outlet covering Wyoming. WyoFile describes Langford’s realization that she was transgender as a teenager, and her coming out process in high school while living in Lander, Wyoming, as well as the hateful media attention she’s been subjected to and how she’s faced it down. She told WyoFile, “My only regret is how much pain the lawsuit has caused my sisters caught in between all this and also all the loved ones in my life.”