JUNE 4, 2025 |
Photo – Kappa Kappa Gamma crest – Courtesy Wikipedia
The U.S. Department of Education announced on Monday that it is investigating the University of Wyoming over the induction of a transgender person into a sorority.
The well-known case at UW involves the Omicron chapter of the Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority. In 2022, the Laramie chapter voted to allow a transgender person to join the organization. The D.O.E. is investigating because UW “allowed a man” to join the sorority.
The announcement of the investigation drew support from Beth Parlato, senior legal advisor for the Independent Women’s Law Center:
“Women deserve single-sex spaces where their privacy and safety are respected, and universities must be held accountable when those protections are compromised. This investigation is a necessary step to ensure that federal policies meant to protect women are being properly enforced and not undermined in the name of political ideology.”
The University of Wyoming is defending itself, saying that the matter was strictly a sorority issue and UW was not directly involved.
UW spokesman Chad Baldwin said in a news release, “The university’s position has been that it doesn’t control decisions about sorority and fraternity membership. Appropriately, the university has not been a participant in litigation in federal court regarding the legality of the sorority’s decision to admit the transgender student. University Regulation 11-4 specifically states that the university “does not control or accept responsibility for the activities nor endorse the programs of student organizations,” including sororities and fraternities.”
Baldwin went on to say that the investigation in itself is not evidence that UW violated federal civil rights laws. He added that the university will “fully cooperate with the investigation and will work with the Office for Civil Rights to come into compliance if needed.”
The Department of Education takes a different view and says “A school receiving federal funding that supports, sponsors, or promotes a sorority or fraternity, must meet its obligations under Title IX to protect its students from sex-based harassment and sexual assault, regardless of the sorority or fraternity’s policy.”
The male sorority member at the center of case is Artemis Langford of Utah. Langford attended the Democrat convention this summer as a member of the Wyoming delegation from Albany County.
The investigation into Langford joining the sorority house on the UW campus was announced by the DOE recognizing June as Title IX Month.
Although members of Kappa Kappa Gamma voted to allow Langford to join the sorority, some members now accuse the organization of pressuring members into how they should vote.
The U.S. Department of Education also accuses UW “allowed a man to join a campus sorority,” rather than intervening in the matter.
Meanwhile, sorority members are moving forward with a legal case against Langford and the sorority in U.S. District court—a lawsuit that has already been tossed out once by District Court Judge Alan B. Johnson.
