UW Transgender Sorority Lawsuit Goes To Denver Court

You may have thought that the case was over and that you had heard the last of it, but it is far from over.

The lawsuit over allowing a man who says he wants to be a woman into a University of Wyoming sorority begins again with opening arguments next Monday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in Denver.

It has been three years since the Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority - an Ohio-based national, women-only nonprofit - filed a suit in Wyoming’s U.S. District Court over the admission of Artemis Langford.

In March 2023, female sorority members filed a complaint seeking declaratory relief, preliminary and permanent injunctive relief, monetary damages, costs, and attorneys’ fees.

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The women said that the sorority’s definition of a woman had remained unchanged since 2018.

A Wyoming federal court ruled that the sorority members were not entitled to a biological women’s-only sorority – despite the Kappa Kappa Gamma bylaws stating they are, in fact, entitled to a women’s-only sorority – because the word “woman” is subject to an individual’s own interpretation.

Since then, the case has been in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, but the appeal was struck down in July 2024 for lack of jurisdiction. The U.S. District Court in Wyoming has never issued a permanent decision.

“At its core, this case is about something remarkably simple: a women’s sorority should be for women," Parlato said to THE CENTER SQUARE News. "The notion that an organization founded to provide sisterhood and community for women can redefine ‘woman’ to include a man and then require its female members to accept a male into the intimate spaces where they live, sleep, and change, is unconscionable.”

The case continues because in Washington, D.C., the Independent Women’s Forum has continued to support the plaintiffs.