Seven past and present members of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority are suing the sisterhood for its decision to admit a transgender inductee into the University of Wyoming Chapter last year.
Artemis Langford was the first biological man accepted into a sorority and the first openly transgender person in greek life at UW. The lawsuit uses the name “Terry Smith” as a pseudonym for Langford.
The unnamed women in the lawsuit are suing on behalf of themselves and the sorority, arguing that sorority officials have perverted its 150-year-old mission to unite women, according to the Cowboy State Daily.
“Since 1870 – when a woman’s presence in a college classroom, by itself, defied societal norms – Kappa Kappa Gamma has united women in defiance of stereotypes about how women ‘should’ be,” the complaint referenced by the Daily reads. “Now Mr. Smith – a man who claims to be a woman because he thinks he knows how women should behave – has been brought into the Plaintiffs’ sorority house.”
According to the legal filing obtained by the Daily, next year, Smith is slated move into the sorority house, which has communal bathrooms that do not lock and where the primary bathroom on the second floor does not have a private area to disrobe before showering.
The lawsuit states that though Smith, who is 6-foot, 2 inches tall and 260 lbs, does not currently reside in the sorority house, he often comes to the house and sits on the couch in the second-floor common area that leads to the shower to watch the women.
“One sorority member walked down the hall to take a shower, wearing only a towel,” the document says. “She felt an unsettling presence, turned, and saw Mr. Smith watching her silently.”
According to the legal filing, “Mr. Smith has, while watching members enter the sorority house, had an erection visible through his leggings.”
“Other times, he has had a pillow in his lap,” the document adds.
The lawsuit says that Smith has not taken any steps to try to appear more feminine, that he is “sexually interested in women,” and that he maintains an active profile on the dating app Tinder, where he solicits women.
The filing states that Smith has taken photographs of sorority members at a slumber party, and has “repeatedly questioned the women about what vaginas look like, breast cup size, [and] whether women were considering breast reductions and birth control,” the Daily reported.
The unnamed women in the lawsuit are petitioning the court to void Smith’s membership and find that men cannot be in the sorority under its existing governing documents.
They are also seeking monetary damages and for the cost of their attorneys’ fees to be reimbursed.
