In late March, seven students at the University of Wisconsin filed a lawsuit against the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority for allowing a transgender woman to pledge. The KKG sisters say the organization’s bylaws – which call for a “single sex, women only” sorority – were violated.
Megyn first covered this story last month. At the time, the students had filed the lawsuit anonymously. They have since come forward and, on Monday’s show, they exclusively joined Megyn with their lawyer, Cassie Craven, to discuss the case and what they hope to achieve by standing up for women’s spaces and rights.
The Lawsuit Against Kappa Kappa Gamma
The pledge at the center of this lawsuit is Artemis Langford (referred to in court documents as “Terry Smith”). The 21-year-old joined the chapter in the fall of 2022. The plaintiffs allege that the sorority ignored official bylaws when admitting Langford to join, and instead relied on a 2018 “Guide for Supporting Our LGBTQIA+ Members” that says Kappa Kappa Gamma is a “single-gender” – rather than a “single-sex” – organization.
One of the KKG sisters taking part in the suit, Ellie, told Megyn that she would have chosen a different path had she known there was a chance for males to be members. “I was pledged into the sorority in fall of 2020, and, at that time, we were assured that there was no open process for those that are not biologically female,” Ellie explained. “I would not have joined the sorority to begin with if I knew that this is what it was going to come to.”
The suit claims national sorority officials pressured the local chapter to violate the rules by allowing the trans member. Typically, all chapter members must vote on a new pledge and the vote takes place anonymously. In this instance, the women say not all members were aware of the vote and it was conducted via a Google poll that would reveal their email address. “It is in our bylaws that every member is supposed to vote and this just shows how we were shut down in this situation because not all of us got to give our vote and we were told to shut up,” another plaintiff, Jaylyn, explained. “We were told we were not allowed to speak, we were not allowed to discuss our feelings, we just had to sit there and listen.”
According to the women, it was made clear to them that there was no room for dissent. “We were literally told, If you don’t agree with this, if you don’t like this, your values don’t align with Kappa’s and you should just leave,” Hannah, a third plaintiff, recalled. She said the messaging came from both chapter and national leadership.
In preparing this case, Craven has come to believe there are larger forces at play. “You have these individuals at the high levels of the fraternal organization at headquarters pushing a woke agenda onto a group of young women when they, in fact, do not go home every night to a strange man in their house that’s six-foot-two and over 250 pounds,” she explained. “Yet they projected this onto these girls to have to live with every single day.”
Protecting Womanhood and Women’s Spaces
The lawsuit details some of the disturbing behavior the trans pledge allegedly engaged in. “This would have been bad enough… but once Artemis got into the sorority, his behavior started to really shock and offend,” Megyn noted. “It wasn’t just like somebody trying to blend in and get along. It was somebody who was clearly getting off on the fact that he was immersed among all these beautiful girls.”
The suit says Langford, who had a 1.7 GPA (below the 2.7 requirement), wears women’s clothing “only occasionally” and has not medically transitioned. According to the filing, the pledge “has, while watching members enter the sorority house, had an erection visible” through pants and would watch the women get changed and get ready to shower. To date, Langford did not live at the house but was able to come and go like the other members.
Craven explained that the reason these “salacious allegations” are included in the lawsuit is because they speak to the “fundamental point” that “being a woman is about more than a pronoun and putting on lipstick.” This case, she said, is about “protecting this organization that they love” and recognizing that “womanhood… is fundamentally rooted in biology.” As such, “we can’t just go with the flow and engage in this individual’s delusion,” she added.
The goal, Craved shared, “is not just standing up for women everywhere and their rights to have safe spaces like bathrooms, it’s their entitlement to a womanhood experience which… is not just gained one day because you say it so.” Instead, she said women have “18-plus years of cumulative experience of what it’s like to purchase a bra, and go through menstruation, and grow up being a young woman, and this individual will never have that experience and we’re not required legally to indulge that.”
The Importance of Standing Up
All of the women admitted that they did not seek out this fight, but they have come to realize that standing up is the only option. Jaylyn shared that when Langford was admitted, “it felt like our values and our concerns were not valued.” That’s what led her to speak out. “I’m here today because I want to stand up for women’s spaces and this is the women’s right fight for our generation,” she explained. “Sororities go so beyond your college experience… and I’m here today to advocate for the future generation of girls behind me as well.”
Megyn agreed that this is today’s women’s rights issue, and she praised Jaylyn and her sorority sisters for their courage. “I know it’s hard, but let me encourage you in what you’re doing here,” she said. “Taking great risks is a great thing – male or female – and it leads, whether it works out or it doesn’t, to resilience and greater strength.”
While she is happy to fight alongside them, she said it’s much more powerful to hear the first-hand accounts of these women, and former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines, and the like. “I’ll help, but it’s much more persuasive coming from people who have been actually subjected to the negative consequences of this woke ideology being thrust down your throats in the name of tolerance – tolerance for everyone except you,” she concluded. “Tolerance for the biological men, but… not the biological women. It’s absurd.”
You can check out the full interview with the KKG sisters by tuning in to episode 550 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.