Over 6-Foot-Tall, 260-Pound Man in Sorority Has Female Residents Living in 'Constant Fear'
A group of sorority sisters in Wyoming say some members “live in constant fear” of a 6-foot-2, 260-pound man who was allowed to join their sorority.
Seven past and present members of the Kappa Kappa Gamma chapter at the University of Wyoming have filed a lawsuit against the sorority for allowing Artemis Langford, a man who identifies as a woman, to join their chapter in September, according to the Cowboy State Daily.
Langford, identified in the lawsuit under the pseudonym Terry Smith, is also named as a defendant. The suit insists that he isn’t a woman just because he identifies as such.
“An adult human male does not become a woman just because he tells others that he has a female ‘gender identity’ and behaves in what he believes to be a stereotypically female manner,” says the suit filed with the U.S. District Court for Wyoming on Monday.
The seven anonymous women are accusing the sorority of “[betraying] the central purpose and mission of Kappa Kappa Gamma by conflating the experience of being a woman with the experience of men engaging in behavior generally associated with women.”
Langford has not slept in the sorority house but has turned up for meals and other events, according to the Cowboy State Daily. He is reportedly expected to move into the house next year.
Artemis Langford, a 21-year-old, 6-foot-2, 260-pound trans student, who joined their chapter in September 2022, is the subject of the lawsuit.https://t.co/cJaXvjONH0
— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) May 16, 2023
Appearing on Megyn Kelly’s podcast this week, one of the seven women involved in the suit told Kelly she is uncomfortable having Langford in the Kappa Kappa Gamma house.
“It’s a weird, gut-wrenching feeling that every time I leave my room there’s a possibility that I’ll walk past him in the hall,” she said. “It’s a weird feeling just to know that I could run into him any time. … We need women’s spaces for that reason.”
“Our house is our home, just like anyone else’s home. Like, you go home at the end of the day to feel comfortable and relaxed in your own skin. And you can’t do that knowing that this individual has full access to your house,” she said.
Another one of the women said that some of the sorority sisters have been “sexually assaulted or sexually harassed” in the past and that Langford’s presence in the house makes them feel unsafe.
“Some girls live in constant fear in their home and our home is supposed to be a safe space,” the sorority member told Kelly.
The lawsuit alleges that Langford has engaged in creepy behavior around the women.
“Mr. Smith has, while watching members enter the sorority house, had an erection visible through his leggings,” the suit says. “Other times, he has had a pillow in his lap.”
The women also say the sorority violated its own rules by allowing Langford to join because he had a 1.9 grade point average at the time of his application last fall, which is below the required 2.7.
They further allege that the sorority forced members to vote on Langford’s admittance online using their email addresses instead of through the anonymous voting system the group normally uses.
The women say chapter officers told members that unless they had met Langford, “a ‘no’ vote was evidence that the member was a bigot,” hinting that “bigotry is grounds for expulsion,” the Cowboy State Daily reported.
The lawsuit also says national sorority supervisors pressured members to induct Langford to gain favorable publicity.
For its part, Kappa Kappa Gamma has claimed the lawsuit “contains numerous false allegations” — without specifying what those might be — and has asserted that the group doesn’t “discriminate” against transgender individuals, according to the New York Post.
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