The U.S. Department of Education on Monday announced it’s investigating the University of Wyoming because it “allowed a man to join a campus sorority” – though UW was not the entity that inducted a transgender member into the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority in 2022.
The UW-campus-based sorority chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma did that itself, by a vote of its members in 2022. The vote is now the subject of ongoing litigation, in which six women accuse the sorority of tweaking normal election processes to pressure members into voting to induct Artemis Langford, the sorority’s first openly transgender member.
The U.S. Department of Education announced in a Monday statement that its Office of Civil Rights is launching an investigation into the University of Wyoming, “after the university allowed a man to join a campus sorority.”
UW spokesman Chad Baldwin countered, and reiterated – as he has for nearly three years – that UW did not involve itself in the sorority’s inductions.
“Our position throughout this has been the university does not have any say in sorority and fraternity membership,” Baldwin told Cowboy State Daily in a Monday phone interview. “There was no procedure in place for UW to approve anything.”
In a later statement, UW added that it has not been part of the ongoing lawsuit surrounding this issue, "appropriately." The statement cites university regulation 11-4, which says the university “does not control or accept responsibility for the activities nor endorse the programs of student organizations,” including sororities and fraternities.
"The Office for Civil Rights’ initiation of an investigation is not itself evidence of a violation of federal civil rights laws and regulations," the statement continues. "The university believes it has been and is in compliance with Title IX but intends to fully cooperate with the investigation and will work with the Office for Civil Rights to come into compliance if needed."
The federal department's statement recounts how seven (later six, once a judge denied plaintiff anonymity) women sued the sorority.
Langford was not living in the sorority house at the time but was permitted access to the women’s living quarters. The lawsuit complaint alleges awkward encounters between Langford and the other members at a slumber party and other events.
DOE says it’s a problem that UW did not intervene.
“A school receiving federal funding that supports, sponsors, or promotes a sorority or fraternity, must meet its obligations under (federal education anti-discrimination law) Title IX to protect its students from sex-based harassment and sexual assault, regardless of the sorority or fraternity’s policy,” says the department’s statement. “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.”
Private Group
The sorority is a private organization and has First Amendment freedom-of-association protections, U.S. District Court Judge Alan B. Johnson concluded in an August 2023 order dismissing the women’s initial attempt at the lawsuit.
Johnson pointed to the U.S. Supreme Court’s firm mandate of associative rights for private groups, to choose their own membership.
Saying the sorority deceived its own members, cheated its own bylaws and is betraying its future prospects for success, the women appealed. But the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the appeal because, in its account, the women may still have a chance to reframe and re-file their complaint in Johnson’s court.
They intend to do that, their attorney Cassie Craven told Cowboy State Daily previously.
The plaintiffs originally named Langford in their lawsuit, saying it’s fitting to involve Langford in legal matters that may impact the inductee’s sorority membership.
Johnson on May 14 declined to dismiss Langford from the case, though Langford asked to be removed from the case in March.
If the women’s next complaint, which had not yet been filed as of Monday, publicizes claims about Langford that are unrelated to the legal issues, the women risk their lawsuit being dismissed with prejudice, meaning, permanently, wrote the judge. He reiterated an earlier mandate telling the women to focus more on legal issues than Langford’s alleged conduct within the sorority.
“This Court takes very seriously the abuse suffered by Ms. Langford,” wrote the judge. “No person deserves to be the object of such vitriol simply for wanting to make friends and join a club in college.”
The Women Today
Some of the case plaintiffs have gone on to become sorority ambassadors for the Independent Women’s Forum, which released a Monday statement celebrating the DOE’s investigation launch.
“Every girl has a right to feel safe and protected in women’s only spaces without questioning if a male can join,” Jaylyn Westenbroek, one of the plaintiffs and an Independent Women sorority ambassador, said in the statement. “A man joined my sorority in Wyoming of all places, which goes to show that this can happen anywhere if not stopped. I want every little girl and woman out there to know that there are people all over the country fighting this fight and that there are more people in support of protecting women than not so it’s OK to stand up and speak out.”
Her fellow plaintiffs Allie Coghan, Hannah Holtmeier, and Maddie Ramar also delivered quotes in the statement, praising the department’s investigation.
“What we experienced represents, in our view, a failure to protect the privacy, dignity, and freedom of expression of female students who raised legitimate, sex-based concerns about the admission of a male into our sorority,” said Ramar. “Our stand is not about exclusion—it is about upholding the principles that safeguard women’s spaces, voices, and rights. We hope this case will bring clarity, accountability, and justice not only for us, but for all college sorority women going forward.”
Clair McFarland can be reached at [email protected].
