Sorority alumnae take legal fight to federal court after being 'given a brother' instead of sisterhood
Sorority alumnae returned to federal court on Monday, asking judges to revive their lawsuit against Kappa Kappa Gamma after they alleged the sorority's national leadership improperly allowed a chapter to admit a transgender woman.
Plaintiff Allie Coghan told Fox News Digital that while she has since graduated, she hopes the appeal will establish a clear legal precedent that protects single-sex private spaces and keeps national organizations from overriding local member consent.
"We were promised a sisterhood, and we were given a brother," Coghan said. "If Kappa wants to redefine the word woman to include men in the definition, that's fine, but they have to go through the proper procedures to do so and allow members to vote, which they did not."
Plaintiff Allie Coghan stands outside the federal courthouse in Denver on Monday after the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in a lawsuit challenging Kappa Kappa Gamma’s decision to admit a transgender woman to its University of Wyoming chapter. (Independent Women)
The legal fight stems from 2022, when transgender student Artemis Langford was allowed to join the University of Wyoming chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma. Coghan said that despite reservations from her and other sorority sisters, Langford was admitted into the sorority.
Coghan said the chapter did not follow its normal voting procedures during the process. Instead of using what she described as the chapter’s traditional recruitment app, Coghan said members were required to submit non-anonymous Google Forms attached to their email addresses.
"They were knocking on girls' doors asking for proof that you had voted," Coghan said, adding that officers told members they would be labeled "transphobic" if they voted against membership.
Coghan said that despite attempts by members and parents to contact the organization’s national leadership, executives did not answer phone calls and eventually stopped answering emails. She and several of her sorority sisters ultimately launched a legal challenge.
Plaintiff Allie Coghan stands with fellow plaintiffs and supporters, including Riley Gaines, outside the federal courthouse in Denver on Monday after the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in their lawsuit against Kappa Kappa Gamma. (Independent Women)
The initial lawsuit was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson, who ruled that Kappa Kappa Gamma, as a private organization, could interpret its own membership requirements. However, the alumnae, supported by the Independent Women's Law Center, appealed the ruling to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which heard oral arguments in Denver on Monday.
"It was very surreal to be back. I mean we were in college. We just wanted to be sorority girls, finish our degrees, graduate, go out into the real world," Coghan said.
"I remember when I was trying to decide if I wanted to sign my name on this, asking the lawyer, am I [going to] be married with kids before there's any sort of resolution? And he just kind of laughed at me and said, ‘I guess it depends on how soon you get married.’ Well, I actually just got married two weeks ago," she added.
Plaintiff Allie Coghan stands outside the federal courthouse in Denver on Monday after the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in a lawsuit challenging Kappa Kappa Gamma’s decision to admit a transgender woman to its University of Wyoming chapter. (Independent Women)
Coghan described the situation in school as toxic and said the sorority house became a "political war zone." She said that while Langford did not live in the house, the student was granted 24/7 access to the living quarters and common rooms, including an area young women needed to walk through to get to the showers.
"The entire dynamic of the house completely shifted. It became a political war zone," Coghan said. "You would see him sitting in the common rooms upstairs and girls have to walk past those rooms to get to the shower. We don’t have a space to undress to get into the shower, so you would just walk in your towel and go take a shower and come back."
While Coghan has since graduated, she said a sense of duty to younger women keeps her involved in the case and seeking a resolution in the courts.
"I don't understand how the feminist movement has shifted so much that it's no longer pro-women, it's pro-woman erasure," Coghan said.
"I hope that it will really set a standard of woman means woman. Woman does not mean man who thinks he is woman. Woman is not up for interpretation. A woman is an adult human female," she later added.
Coghan and her fellow plaintiff, Hannah Holtmeier, also spoke on the "Riley Gaines Show" podcast, discussing the moment they said their chapter president told them that if they didn’t like the change in their house, they were welcome to drop out of the group.
"She basically told us, if you don't like it, your values don't align with Kappa's, and you can drop," Holtmeier told Gaines. "Being told that if you don't like it, you can drop and not live in a house that I had called a home for already a year and a half was absolutely mind-boggling to me."
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She echoed Coghan’s comments about conditions in the sorority house, saying women would sometimes act as lookouts for one another when they were in the shower to ensure the hallway was clear.
"It was to the point where girls would have like a lookout basically when they're in the shower. They would text their roommate, say, ‘Hey, I'm coming back,’ and they would have to clear the hall," Holtmeier said.
"It was definitely an unnerving feeling in those intimate spaces, especially upstairs when that's where our showers were," she added.
The recent oral arguments before the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver represented a new phase in the legal battle. The three-judge panel is considering whether to overturn the lower court’s dismissal and revive the breach of contract lawsuit.
Plaintiff Hannah Holtmeier speaks outside the federal courthouse in Denver on Monday after the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in a lawsuit challenging Kappa Kappa Gamma’s membership policies. (Independent Women)
The plaintiffs argued that the national leadership of the group could not legally redefine core membership terms, including what constitutes being a "woman," without a formal vote from the organization's members or an amendment to its bylaws. The appeals court’s ruling will determine whether the lawsuit remains dismissed or is allowed to move forward.
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Fox News Digital reached out to Kappa Kappa Gamma for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Madison Colombo is a writer for Fox News Digital’s Flash, Media, and Culture team, covering daily breaking news and trending topics with an award-winning background in broadcast and digital journalism.
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