Rules allow transgender woman at Wyoming chapter, and a court can’t interfere, sorority says
A national sorority defended the admission of a transgender women into its University of Wyoming Chapter, stating in a court motion that it followed sorority guidelines despite a suit filed by seven members of the organization.
Seven Kappa Kappa Gamma members at Wyoming’s one four-year university filed a lawsuit in March, claiming that the sorority had violated their own rules when it admitted Artemis Langford to its ranks last year. Six women re-filed their lawsuit in May, after the judge had twice prohibited them from filing anonymously.
The Kappa Kappa Gamma’s motion to dismiss was filed in U.S. District Court on Tuesday in Cheyenne. It is the first substantive response from the sorority to the lawsuit since its March statement that the complaint contained “numerous false accusations.”
The central question in this case, however, is very simple: Do the plaintiffs have any legal rights to join a sorority which excludes transgenders? The motion to dismiss states that they do not.
|
Since 2015, Kappa Kappa Gamma has allowed its more than 145 chapter to accept transgender people. According to the Kappa Kappa Gamma’s filing, this policy is similar to that of 25 other sororities within the National Panhellenic Conference (the umbrella organization for all sororities across the U.S., Canada and the world).
If most members of the sorority agreed with their position, they might change the policy. Or, if “a stance of inclusion is offensive to their own personal values”, the motion to dismiss states.
The motion states that “private organisations have the right to interpret their governing documents.”
The motion to dismiss states that even if they did not, the lawsuit does not show that the sorority violated the Kappa Kappa Gamma Bylaws or interpreted them in an unreasonable way.
The lawsuit filed by the sorority sister’s asks U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson for a declaration that Langford’s membership in the sorority is null and void, as well as unspecified damages.
According to the lawsuit, Langford’s appearance in the Kappa Kappa Gamma home made some members of that sorority uncomfortable. The lawsuit claims Langford would “stare at them for hours without speaking” while sitting on a couch.
Mary Pat Rooney and Langford are also named as defendants in the lawsuit. According to the motion to dismiss, Rooney does not have jurisdiction because she lives in Illinois and was not involved in Langford’s admission.
In a separate document filed Tuesday, an attorney representing Langford stated that the lawsuit does not state any claims of wrongdoing against Langford or seek any relief from her.
Langford’s complaint says that the women who are suing “fling dehumanizing dirt” throughout the case “to bully Ms. Langford in the national arena.”
The Langford document also adds, “This alone merits dismissal.”
Johnson ruled that the plaintiffs could not proceed in the case anonymously, and one of the seven Kappa Kappa Gamma University of Wyoming members dropped out. The six plaintiffs who remain are Jaylyn, Hannah, Holtmeier and Allison Coghan. Grace Choate, Madeline Ramar, Megan Kosar, Megan Kosar, Madeline Ramar, Megan Kosar, and Megan Kosar.