The Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority being sued over admitting a transgender woman to its University of Wyoming chapter has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, stating that sorority rules allow for transgender women to belong and that the court cannot interfere with that.
In March, seven members of Kappa Kappa Gamma at the University of Wyoming filed a lawsuit, claiming that the sorority violated its own rules by accepting Artemis Langford as a member. After being twice barred from suing anonymously, six of the women refiled the lawsuit in May.
The motion to dismiss, filed by Kappa Kappa Gamma in U.S. District Court in Cheyenne on Tuesday, is the sorority’s first substantive response to the lawsuit, apart from a statement by its executive director, Kari Kittrell Poole in March, who claimed that the complaint contains “numerous false allegations.”
According to the motion to dismiss, “The central issue in this case is simple: do the plaintiffs have a legal right to be in a sorority that excludes transgender women? They do not.”
Since 2015, Kappa Kappa Gamma has had a policy allowing its more than 145 chapters to accept transgender women. This policy aligns with the policies of the other 25 sororities in the National Panhellenic Conference, the umbrella organization for sororities in the United States and Canada, as stated in the filing by Kappa Kappa Gamma.
The sorority members who opposed Artemis Langford’s inclusion could potentially change the policy if a majority of sorority members shared their viewpoint. Alternatively, they have the option to resign if they find “a position of inclusion is too offensive to their personal values”. These arguments were presented in the sorority’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
The motion asserts, “What they cannot do is have this court define their membership for them as the private organizations have a right to interpret their own governing documents.”
Furthermore, the motion states that even if the plaintiffs were to argue otherwise, the lawsuit fails to demonstrate how the sorority violated or unreasonably interpreted the bylaws of Kappa Kappa Gamma.
The lawsuit filed by the sorority sisters requests U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson to invalidate Langford’s membership in the sorority and award unspecified damages.
According to the lawsuit, Langford’s presence in the Kappa Kappa Gamma house made some sorority members uncomfortable. The lawsuit alleges that Langford would sit on a couch for extended periods, “staring at them without talking”.
The lawsuit includes the national Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority council president, Mary Pat Rooney, and Langford as defendants. However, the sorority’s motion to dismiss argues that the court lacks jurisdiction over Rooney, who resides in Illinois and was not involved in Langford’s admission.
In a separate filing supporting the sorority’s motion to dismiss, Langford’s attorney states that the lawsuit fails to allege any wrongdoing by Langford and does not seek any relief from her.
Langford’s filing contends that the women suing are engaging in “fling dehumanizing mud to bully Ms. Langford on the national stage”, which, according to Langford’s document, is “grounds for dismissal”.
One of the seven Kappa Kappa Gamma members who initially joined the lawsuit at the University of Wyoming withdrew from the case when the judge ruled that they could not proceed anonymously. The remaining plaintiffs are Jaylyn Westenbroek, Hannah Holtmeier, Allison Coghan, Grace Choate, Madeline Ramar, and Megan Kosar.
