Female students at the University of Wyoming who sued their sorority for admitting a male student have spoken out for the first time.
The seven plaintiffs, all members of the Kappa Kappa Gamma chapter, filed a lawsuit in March demanding that the sorority nullify the transgender-identifying mans admission and abandon its unauthorized gender-inclusion policy.
The women claim that KKG national headquarters breached its contract to provide a single-sex experience to its members after its President unilaterally instructed chapters to admit male members without going through the requisite process to change the organizations bylaws. The case is still being adjudicated after a U.S. District Court Judge denied the young womens request for anonymity as a condition for proceeding with the matter.
The plaintiffs have now explained why they felt compelled to fight for the historic gender exclusivity of their sisterhood. They changed how they defined woman without changing our bylaws or rules. They came out with a guide to support the LGBTQ community, said one of the plaintiffs, Hannah Holtmeier. When it came out, they were expecting us to follow suit and say, We agree; thats what a woman is. They cant change their definition of a woman and expect us to change ours.
The male member, sophomore Artemis Langford, is 6? 2? tall and weighs 260 pounds, according to the complaint obtained by National Review. Langford has not taken steps to transition, the complaint states; he still carries a drivers license that identifies him as a male, occasionally wears womens clothing, and has refrained from treatments such as hormone therapy, feminization surgery, and laser hair removal.
Langford is sexually interested in women, the plaintiffs allege, using Tinder to meet them. Witnesses cited in the complaint said theyve seen Langford sitting alone in private areas of the sorority house, where he can get a close look at women walking by with visible erections. Sometimes, a pillow sits on Langfords lap, the witnesses said.
The plaintiffs have received support from KKG alumni and other concerned citizens, but theyve faced backlash on campus. The school newspaper, the Branding Iron, where Langford is a writer, published an article about the plaintiffs legal battle that the four felt was unflattering. They posted it to their Instagram page and deleted all the comments that were in support of us. And they left us the ugly comments, calling us names, telling us to pluck our eyes out, said Katie Fisher, one of the plaintiffs.
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