A federal judge has sided with a sorority that inducted a transgender sister after several other members sued over the definition of the word woman.Having considered the issues presented (again), we find that the majority of the claims must be dismissed on the grounds that this Court still may not interfere with [the sororitys] contractually valid interpretation of its own Bylaws, U.S. District Court Judge Alan B. Johnson, a Ronald Reagan appointee, wrote in his ruling. Related This sorority explicitly banned trans women in its new diversity statement The case started in 2023 when six sisters at the University of Wyoming chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma Jaylyn Westenbroek, Hannah Holtmeier, Allison Coghan, Grace Choate, Madeline Ramar, and Megan Kosar sued their sorority for inducting a transgender woman. The cis women argued that the sorority breached its contract with them by allowing the trans woman to join, citing the part of the bylaws that refer to members as woman and women and saying that trans women arent really women.The complaint itself was full of invective for their transgender sister, including her height and weight, accusing her of having an angry glare, and misgendering her with he/him pronouns throughout. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today It only took Judge Johnson a couple of months to throw out their lawsuit, scolding the plaintiffs for including so many personal insults towards the trans woman that they barely had any room left for their legal claims against Defendants.That would have been the end of it, but the cisgender sisters filed another lawsuit this year, citing the new presidential administrations opposition to transgender rights and claiming that the sorority allowing a trans woman to join is inconsistent with its reliance on the exemptions for single-sex organizations under Title IX. Title IX is the federal law that bans discrimination on the basis of sex in education. The Biden administration interpreted this as a ban on anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination, since its impossible to discriminate against a sexual orientation or gender identity without taking sex into account. Conservatives, though, argue that this law requires anti-trans discrimination since it defines a group of people based on sex, not gender.But the judge rejected their arguments again, noting that Kappa Kappa Gammas bylaws dont define the words woman or women to be exclusively referring to cisgender women. He even noted that the sorority published and distributed multiple texts showing that its interpretation of those words is trans-inclusive, so the plaintiffs cant claim that their contract with the sorority was understood to mean that trans women would be excluded. The trans sister herself, Artemis Langford, graduated from the university earlier this year and said that shes leaving the state. She told Wyoming Public Radio that the publicity that the case attracted led to death threats against her. Every day I woke up feeling like, Oh, why does my mouth taste bad? And then realizing like, Oh, my heart is racing and my mouth tastes like cotton. Oh, Im having a panic attack,' she said. Like Im waking up with a panic attack, or some nights just having total insomnia.I think some of it has to do with just the grace of God helping me get through those finals and being so like, I have to pass. Like, I cant let these guys win by having me fail academically. I just had to push, push, push to succeed. And somehow I managed to get through it.But, she stressed, she doesnt regret joining.I still think that theres immense value in Greek life, especially at the University of Wyoming. I joined for a reason. Theres a sisterhood in sororities that you cant really find anywhere else in 21st-century young adult life anymore, she said. And I would absolutely say people should continue if they want that.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.