A group of sorority members has lost its attempt to oust a transgender student, as a federal judge says sororities can define the word “woman” however they choose. 

A group of six members of Kappa Kappa Gamma’s University of Wyoming chapter sued in 2023 over the admission of a transgender student. They argued that the sorority had violated its mission statement by allowing a biological male, who identifies as female, to enter an “all-female” space. 

A federal district court judge, Alan Johnson, says in a ruling released Friday that the “majority of the claims” in a lawsuit “must be dismissed on the grounds that this Court still may not interfere with [the sorority’s] contractually valid interpretation of its own Bylaws.”

Judge Johnson dismissed the case with prejudice, which means it cannot be brought again, as he said that the court cannot force sororities to adopt a particular definition of the word “woman.”

“Nothing in the Bylaws or the Standing Rules requires Kappa to narrowly define the words ‘women’ or ‘woman’ to include only those individuals born with a certain set of reproductive organs, particularly when even the dictionary cited by Plaintiffs offers a more expansive definition,” his ruling says. “Nor has Kappa or the Fraternity Council concealed this definition from its members: in fact, it has published and distributed multiple texts clarifying the issue.”

When the case was first filed in 2023, it was also handled by Judge Johnson, who subsequently dismissed it. In that decision, he pointed to a Supreme Court decision from 2000 that said the Boy Scouts of America could decide not to allow gay scoutmasters, and said that if private organizations can choose to block members of the LGBTQ+ community, they can choose to include them too. 

The six plaintiffs asked an appeals court to rule in their favor, but their appeal was rejected. 

The sorority member who was admitted, sparking the lawsuit, Artemis Langford, told Wyoming Public Media that the litigation and attention to the case from conservative commentators led to panic attacks. 

Now that Judge Johsnon has decided to dismiss the case, Artemis Langford is planning to sue the six sorority sisters for damages. 

In June, the Trump administration said the University of Wyoming is in violation of Title IX due to its inclusion policies and letting transgender students join sororities. 

“A sorority that admits male students is no longer a sorority by definition,” the Department of Education said.

The department warned that the university could lose its federal funding over its policies.