Three members of the University of Wyoming’s Kappa Kappa Gamma filed an amended complaint Monday in an ongoing legal battle over the sorority’s inclusion of a transgender member.
The case began in 2023, when six members sued the sorority for allegedly breaking its bylaws, breaching housing contracts and misleading sisters when it admitted Artemis Langford, a transgender woman, by a vote of its members.
After U.S. District Court Judge Alan B. Johnson dismissed the case and the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals kicked it back down to the lower court, the plaintiffs left the case unresolved for more than nine months. A deadline was set for Monday, leaving the plaintiffs with two choices: file an amended complaint or the district court’s ruling would be final.
Choosing the former, the plaintiffs highlight recent actions by the Trump administration in the amended complaint. They also omit earlier allegations that Johnson described as “unbefitting in federal court.”
Johnson also warned plaintiffs ahead of Monday’s filing that including “irrelevant stigmatizing allegations” would result in the case being tossed.
The amended complaint features a revised set of parties. Haley Rutsch is a new plaintiff in the case, for example, alongside original plaintiffs Allison Coghan and Hannah Holtmeier. Jaylyn Westenbroek, Grace Choate, Madeline Ramar and Megan Kosar are no longer named in the case, nor is Langford listed as a defendant.
“As she has maintained all along, there was no reason for the plaintiffs to sue Ms. Langford or to add inflammatory allegations about her to their complaint,” Rachel Berkness, Langford’s attorney, told WyoFile in a statement.
Langford’s request to be dismissed from the case was rejected in May. Those filings characterized the litigation “simply as a vehicle through which to publicize allegations” about Langford.
“Now that the gravy train has run its course, the plaintiffs have apparently decided to move forward with the legal aspects of their claims, which have always been dubious,” Berkness wrote in her statement. “Ms. Langford, however, has graduated and is moving forward.”
Monday’s filing marks the second amended complaint in the case. The lawsuit, which was initially filed anonymously, was first revised in April 2023 after a court denied the plaintiffs’ request to seek legal action without their names attached.
Trump administration actions
A week ago, the Trump administration announced UW is under investigation for alleged Title IX violations stemming from Kappa Kappa Gamma’s inclusion of a transgender woman.
Title IX — a federal law prohibiting discrimination based on sex in educational programs and activities — provides an exemption for the membership practices of social sororities and fraternities, as WyoFile previously reported.
“A sorority that admits male students is no longer a sorority by definition and thus loses the Title IX statutory exemption for a sorority’s single-sex membership practices,” the Department of Education stated in a press release.
It’s unclear whether the Department of Education has the authority to determine who can be a member of a social sorority or fraternity.
The amended complaint reiterates the Trump administration’s assertion, arguing that KKG’s inclusion of transgender women “is inconsistent with its reliance on the exemptions for ‘single-sex’ organizations under Title IX.”
“Based on [Kappa Kappa Gamma’s] bylaws’ reference to and reliance on the ‘exemption’ in Title IX … the notion of a single-gender organization, as the phrase is used in the bylaws, must be read as synonymous with ‘single sex,’” the complaint states.
The plaintiffs also point to an executive order President Donald Trump issued on his first day in office, and as such, Kappa’s inclusion of transgender women “is contrary to law.”
“In Executive Order 14168 … the terms ‘women,’ ‘woman,’ ‘girls,’ and ‘girl,’ are defined as ‘adult and juvenile human females, respectively.’ Further, ‘sex’ is defined as a person’s ‘immutable biological classification as male or female,’ and the term specifically excludes the concept of ‘gender identity,’” the complaint argues.
May Mailman, former attorney for the plaintiffs, has been credited with crafting the order alongside Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy.
During her time representing the plaintiffs, Mailman worked as legal director of the Independent Women’s Forum, a D.C.-based, right-wing policy group that attached itself to the case. Mailman joined the White House in January as deputy assistant and senior policy strategist to Trump.
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