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 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."

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The legal fight stems from 2022, when transgender student 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 chapters 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 organizations 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.

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The initial 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.

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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 hav