Judges don't know if they can make ruling on sorority trans woman

Question

Federal appellate court judges are expressing doubt about whether they can rule on a transgender woman's admission into a University of Wyoming sorority or if a lower court should continue to hear the case.

The admission of Artemis Langford into the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority prompted a lawsuit from six other sorority members last year.  

The sorority brought the lawsuit against the national headquarters of the Kappa Kappa Gamma group over Langford's admission, claiming she made them uncomfortable and shouldn't have been allowed to join. 





Six members of the University of Wyoming chapter of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority brought a lawsuit against the national group over Artemis Langford's, pictured admission, claiming she made them uncomfortable and shouldn't have been allowed to join





At the heart of the lawsuit was the issue of defining a 'woman', as the sorority sisters argued that because KKG's governing documents define it as a space exclusively for females, the organization broke its own rules by admitting a biological male. Langford is seen top tight





Demonstrators hold a sign on the steps before a news conference outside the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Denver

They alleged Langford had leered at the other girls whilst having an erection after being given access to the house. 

After hearing from both sides in the case, the three-judge U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals took the arguments under advisement without making ruling.

The case at Wyoming's only four-year public university has drawn widespread attention as transgender people fight for more acceptance in schools, athletics, workplaces and elsewhere, while others push back. 

In their lawsuit, the six current and former members of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority chapter in Laramie, Wyoming, challenge Langford's admission by casting doubt on whether sorority rules allowed a transgender woman.

An attorney for the sorority sisters told the judges that the national sorority council was unfair to sorority members by changing who could belong. 




Demonstrators wave placards outside court. The 'Save Sisterhood' demonstration was staged after oral arguments for the landmark Westenbroek et al v. Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority suit 





 Artemis Langford is seen in her dorm room at the University of Wyoming last August





Artemis Langford with her acceptance letter to join the Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority at the University of Wyoming in Laramie





Last summer, U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson in Cheyenne threw out the lawsuit last year , ruling he could not override how the private, voluntary organization defined a woman and order that she not belong 

However, the bulk of the judges' questions and remarks to attorneys focused on whether the case was even ripe for appeal.

The sorority sisters who sued said Langford's presence in their sorority house made them uncomfortable - and alleged Langford 'has, while watching members enter the sorority house, had an erection visible through his leggings. Other times, he has had a pillow in his lap.' 

They also accused Langford of taking photos of them at a slumber party and making inappropriate comments to them. 

Last summer, U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson in Cheyenne threw out the lawsuit last year, ruling he could not override how the private, voluntary organization defined a woman and order that she not belong.

He dismissed the case without prejudice in a ruling that suggested the lawsuit could be refiled in his court. 

That alone should forestall any appeal, attorneys for the Ohio-based sorority argue in court documents.









In the lawsuit, members of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority chapter challenged Artemis Langford's (rear, far left) admission by casting doubt on whether sorority rules allow a transgender woman into the organization





Riley Gaines, front center, an advocate for women's sports and privacy issues, speaks during a news conference outside the court 





May Mailman, lead counsel and director of the Independent Women's Law Center

Appellate Judge Carolyn McHugh expressed openness to that argument.

'It seems to me it's not final,' McHugh told the sorority sisters' attorney, May Mailman, at the start of the oral arguments.

Mailman told the judges the case was sufficiently resolved in district court to allow appeal. But appellate Judge Richard Federico voiced similar doubts.

'The district court is offering you a lifeline,' he told Mailman.

Mailman argued that by allowing transgender women into the chapter at the university, the national sorority council and president violated their obligation to sorority members to faithfully follow sorority bylaws. 

State law in Ohio, however, gives the volunteer board for the private, Ohio-based organization wide leeway to define terms in those bylaws, including who's a woman, argued Kappa Kappa Gamma attorney Natalie McLaughlin.

A court may get involved only if such an interpretation is unreasonable or arbitrary but that wasn't the case, McLaughlin added.

McLaughlin, said that the word 'woman' is 'undefined' in the sorority's bylaws and therefore did not preclude a trans woman from joining. 




Allie Coghan, left, and Jaylyn Westenbroek, right, two of six plaintiffs in a suit against the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority. The suit claims that the sorority violated bylaws by allowing a male to join the chapter at the University of Wyoming in 2022





The lawsuit was brought against the KKG Fraternity based in Ohio and its president Mary Pat Rooney, by sisters Jaylyn Westenbroek, Hannah Holtmeier, Allison Coghan, Derila Kopfkissen Bewertung Grace Choate, Madeline Ramar, and Megan Kosar (all pictured with their lawyer speaking with Megyn Kelly)





Langford is pictured with two of her best friends on the Wyoming campus

She said: 'The word 'women' is undefined in Kappa's bylaws, and that term 'women' is not a term that has a singular definition'.

McLaughlin added: 'So the membership qualification in the bylaws remain the same, there has been no amendment to the bylaws which is that a member must be a woman.

'That qualification however is undefined in the bylaws.'

Given the 'women' is not explicitly defined in the bylaws, the question for the court is whether or not the national council was justified in interpreting it to include Langford. 

The arguments drew a handful of demonstrators outside the federal courthouse holding signs that read 'Save Sisterhood' and 'Women have the right to women's only spaces.'

'We shouldn't have to say 'Here's why I need my women's space.' Women's spaces should be protected, period,' Mailman said at a news conference after the arguments.




Initially seeking acceptance and community, Langford became a member of the University of Wyoming's Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, but encountered opposition from conservative media and local activists, leading to a federal lawsuit by six fellow sorority sisters





Riley Gaines, an advocate for women's sports and privacy issues, speaks during a news conference outside the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit







The argument that a court should be able to tell a private organization how to define a woman flies in the face of conservative skepticism about big government, the Wyoming LGBTQ+ advocacy group Wyoming Equality said in a statement.

'They are arguing against the right of organizations to determine their own membership,' Director Sara Burlingame said. 'I am optimistic that the 10th Circuit will agree with Judge Johnson.