This is one of two investigations opened by the Department of Education after declaring June as Title IX Month.
Alleging a Title IX violation, U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon states, “This Administration will fight on every front to protect women’s and girls’ sports, intimate spaces, dormitories and living quarters, and fraternal and panhellenic organizations.”
Back in 2022, the University of Wyoming allowed a male student named Artemis Langford to join the sorority.
Campus Reform says that women reported Langford for inappropriate behavior, including him sitting quietly in common spaces with "an erection visible through his leggings."
Beth Parlato is the Senior Legal Advisor with Independent Women's Forum.
“Once the Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority girls had learned that a male was allowed to join their sorority and actually enter into their private residence, they had retained attorneys in Wyoming and had commenced the lawsuit against Kappa Kappa Gamma,” Parlato states.
She explained that Independent Women's Forum originally entered the lawsuit only on the appellate level, and the appellate court had ruled that they didn't have jurisdiction to hear the appeal.
"The case has now been kicked back down to the Wyoming District Court, where it is still an active case,” Parlato says.
Parlato reported that Langford is still in the sorority today, more than three years later.
"Since the litigation is still pending, there has not been an outcome. So, he was still a student during the spring of 2025 and was still allowed to have a presence and enter into the communal sorority home, which is located on the campus of the University of Wyoming,”
She further explained the DEO’s investigation.
"OCR had given a statement that said that, once a sorority allows admittance of a male student, it is no longer a sorority by definition, and it will lose the Title IX statutory exemption for a single-sex membership. So, they have opened up a formal investigation, which really is a victory and very good news for these girls. We need to continue to advocate and protect single-sex spaces for our girls and our women,” Parlato concludes.
