A sorority at the University of Wyoming will be forced to accommodate a 6’2 trans-identified male after the federal District Court rejected a suit brought by six of the female members. Women from Kappa Kappa Gamma (KKG) sued the national leadership of their sorority after expressing discomfort with the presence of Artemis Langford.
Despite hearing testimony from the women, some of whom stated Langford had “watched” them undress with an erection, Judge Alan Johnson dismissed the case of Westenbroek v. Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity on August 25. Johnson stated that re-defining “woman” to include males was “Kappa Kappa Gamma’s bedrock right as a private, voluntary organization — and one this Court may not invade.”
In his decision, Johnson wrote: “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 non-profit’s bylaws, expansively; this Judge may not invade Kappa Kappa Gamma’s freedom of expressive association and inject the circumscribed definition Plaintiffs urge.”
While the KKG bylaws state that “a new member shall be a woman,” Judge Johnson found that no bylaw defined “woman.” Johnson also cited a 2018 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 was admitted to KKG last September following the results of a vote, enabled by the language put forward in the sorority’s “inclusivity” guide. However, not all of the women were pleased with the decision, with some alleging that they had felt pressured into accepting him against their will.
Last year, one sorority member came forward to state that the women were initially promised anonymity in regards to the voting process, only to then be required to identify themselves on the online ballot form. This resulted in women feeling “intimidated” with voicing their concerns about a male entering the sorority.
In a meeting held to discuss Langford’s potential candidacy, KKG chapter leaders, including the president and membership chair, allegedly dismissed the concerns of women who expressed discomfort.
“Regardless of what your political views are, our Kappa values are acceptance and kindness so if that is something that you disagree with, that’s not in line with Kappa values,” one member allegedly said at the time.
Another member is reported to have said that “if you vote no, it better be for issues with that new member or else it’s homophobic.” The source told the National Review that comments made by KKG leaders downplayed worries women had about sharing a residence with Langford: “If your only concerns are about her living in the house, you are thinking too far down the road,” and “if you have something to say about this that isn’t kind or respectful, keep it to yourself.”
As a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma, Langford, who is 6’2 and weighs approximately 260 pounds, is granted access to the KKG sorority house, which accommodates up to 50 women.
Though Langford had been residing elsewhere at the time of the first filing, women alleged that he would frequently sit in the second-floor common area and had been observed watching the women on multiple occasions.
According to court records, Langford had been voyeuristically peeping on the women while they were in intimate situations, and, on at least one occasion, had a visible erection while doing so.
“One sorority member walked down the hall to take a shower, wearing only a towel … She felt an unsettling presence, turned, and saw [Langford] watching her silently,” the court document reads.
“[Langford] has, while watching members enter the sorority house, had an erection visible through his leggings,” the suit says. “Other times, he has had a pillow in his lap.”
As evidenced by his Tinder profile, Langford is “sexually interested in women.” It was further stated in the suit that Langford took photographs of the women while at a sorority slumber party, where he also is said to have made inappropriate comments.
“[He] repeatedly questioned the women about what vaginas look like, breast cup size, whether women were considering breast reductions and birth control,” the complaint had claimed.
On another occasion, Langford “was supposed” to leave a sorority slumber party by 10 p.m. that evening but did not, saying that he intended to leave after the women fell asleep. After singing to himself at approximately 11 p.m., Langford finally left the residence at midnight, only to return the next morning.
At that time, it is stated that Langford stood silently in the corner of the room while watching other pledges change out of their sleeping garments.
He was also said to have sat in the back of a sorority yoga class for an hour in December 2022 “and watched the assembled young women flex their bodies.” Langford has denied these allegations.
Seven women initially filed the lawsuit against KKG leadership in March, though one woman removed herself from the litigation after the women were told their identities could not be protected.
In May, a judge twice prohibited the women from suing anonymously, while stipulating that Langford’s identity should remain hidden. Langford was, at first, referred to by the pseudonym “Terry Smith” and male pronouns in the legal documents. Six of the women then refiled the lawsuit under their own names, and had requested that the court void Langford’s membership in KKG.
Attorney Cassie Craven, representing the women, had argued that Langford’s “access to and presence in the sorority house violates the housing contract” that the women had agreed to sign.
“It is really uncomfortable. Some of the girls have been sexually assaulted or sexually harassed. Some girls live in constant fear in our home,” one of the sorority members told Megyn Kelly during an interview on her podcast in May.
Despite this, Judge Johnson disagreed, asserting that the women’s housing situation and their contracts were not the subject of the litigation.
“Plaintiffs allege that KKG breached their housing contracts by allowing transgender women to live in the chapter house in violation of KKG’s governing documents. Once again, though, Plaintiffs fail to cite the Court to any explicit breach within the housing contracts,” the ruling states.
Lawyers representing Kappa Kappa Gamma had previously depicted the suit as an attempt by “a vocal minority” to impose their personal beliefs at the cost of Langford and the sorority.
In June, the sorority filed a motion to dismiss the suit, calling it a “frivolous” attempt to eject Langford for “their own political purposes.” According to the motion, the women suing are flinging “dehumanizing mud” in order to “bully Ms. Langford on the national stage.”
“Perhaps the greatest wrongs in this case are not the ones Plaintiffs and their supporters imagine they have suffered, but the ones that they have inflicted through their conduct since filing the Complaint,” they wrote. “Regardless of personal views on the rights of transgender people, the cruelty that Plaintiffs and their supporters have shown towards Langford and anyone in Kappa who supports Langford is disturbing.”
Last week, local outlet Wyofile sympathetically profiled Langford and attempted to portray the women’s objections with his presence in the sorority house as homophobic, asserting that his declared sexual interest in women qualified him as being “gay.”
The article also revealed that Langford had joined his school’s Genders and Sexualities Alliance organization while a freshman at Lander Valley High School. While still a student, Langford began to declare a transgender status – an issue which divided his parents and, as it was implied, contributed to their decision to divorce.
“The lawsuit against Artemis is horrible, false, and causing harm to Artemis and other trans people,” Langford’s lawyer, Rachel Berkness, told Wyofile.
“The reality is this lawsuit is being used as clickbait so that the plaintiffs’ lawyers can raise money at the expense of a kind and wonderful student in our community,” Langford’s lawyer told Wyofile. “I hope people look back at this case in the same way they look back at other attacks on members of minority groups in our history — as shameful and not who we are.”
As previously revealed by Reduxx, Artemis Langford’s given name is Dallin, and he began identifying as transgender while participating in mock micronations in high school.
According to a micro-nations wiki entry, “On the 11th of June 2017, Dallin Langford announced to the micronational community that she was transgender and was given a name change to Artemis Langford as reflection of this revelation. The Kingdom changed into a Queendom and from King to Queen.”
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