Trans sorority girl Artemis Langford breaks her silence in fawning MSNBC interview to insist SHE’S the victim
The 21-year-old trans student in the eye of a legal storm surrounding her sorority has broken her silence in her first national news interview.
Six women from the University of Wyoming sued the national Kappa Kappa Gamma organization in March over Artemis Langford’s admission to the home.
Langford spoke out on MSNBC on Sunday, but the fawning host didn’t ask for her side of the story regarding the voyeurism allegations against her, or the broader issue of gender at the center of the lawsuit.
After being introduced by interviewer Yasmin Vossoughian as “the very brave woman who is at the center of it all,” Langford described “the sheer fear of getting caught in a lawsuit and not knowing what’s going to happen next.”
“It’s been a really tough year to say the least,” Langford said.
Artemis Langford (pictured), the trans student in the eye of a legal storm that embroiled her sorority this year, has broken her silence on the national stage
Six University of Wyoming women sued the national Kappa Kappa Gamma organization in March over the admission of 21-year-old Langford (far left) to the home
‘The sheer surreality of being in a media cycle over and over again, even though I didn’t necessarily want to, given all this attention because of my identity.
And then the sheer fear of getting caught in a lawsuit and not knowing what’s going to happen next, especially with online threats and harassment, both physical and online.
“It’s been very hard on myself and those in my chapter, and the campus in general has been very affected.”
The lawsuit was filed against the Ohio-based KKG fraternity and its president, Mary Pat Rooney, by sisters Jaylyn Westenbroek, Hannah Holtmeier, Allison Coghan, Grace Choate, Madeline Ramar, and Megan Kosar.
They wanted Langford to be barred from the KKG over claims of rampant voyeurism — including the fact that she had “peeped” at them in intimate situations — and for the court to issue a ruling that would deter other trans women from joining in the future. to close.
Because the KKG documents define it as a space exclusively for women, the organization broke its own rules by admitting a trans person, prosecutors argued.
Last month, a judge ruled that no policy had been violated by allowing the student to join KKG, and dismissed the case because it would not rule on the definition of a woman.
KKG, along with Langford’s attorney, previously denied all allegations.
When asked if she was harassed on campus as a result, Langford said some students had been “very hostile” with “lightnings” and bumped into her in the hallways.
Langford’s side of the story was first heard when she appeared on MSNBC on Sunday, but the host did not ask for her response to the allegations, or to address gender issues in the lawsuit.
However, she added that some “very smart people” from Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority are “on my side.”
“I’m very happy to have such wonderful, supportive sisters in my chapter,” she said.
“As a sorority, Kappa shows so much to me about wonderful values, from loyalty to courage and pioneering work.”
“I want people to know that after all they’ve been through, I’m definitely not the first trans person to be attacked by elements in the media, and I don’t think I’ll be the last,” she said.
“But I want people to know that it’s never okay to cast such a critical eye on someone just because of their identity, just because I’m transgender.”
Members of the sorority alleged a number of issues in the lawsuit, including that Langford had “voyeuristically watched them while they were in intimate situations.”
The sisters alleged that Langford harassed the women living in the sorority house by watching some of them in silence as they moved to and from the house’s showers in nothing but towels.
According to them, Langford also “repeatedly questioned the women about what vaginas look like, the size of the breast cups, whether women consider breast reductions and birth control.”
The women claimed that Langford stared at the other girls for hours without saying anything as they sat with a pillow on her lap.
They also accused her of taking pictures of the girls at a slumber party.
The lawsuit was filed against the Ohio-based KKG fraternity and its president, Mary Pat Rooney, by sisters Jaylyn Westenbroek, Hannah Holtmeier, Allison Coghan, Grace Choate, Madeline Ramar and Megan Kosar (all pictured with their attorney talking to Megyn Kelly )
Langford described on MSNBC “the sheer fear of being in a lawsuit and not knowing what’s going to happen, especially with online threats and harassment, both physical and online.”
A young woman claimed she once saw Langford staring at her as she changed clothes – although the validity of this claim has since been questioned.
More broadly, the lawsuit also alleged that Langford had violated KKG policies by joining the sorority despite not being biologically female.
Prosecutors argued that “the efforts of sorority leaders betrayed the women’s understanding of what they were joining and the guiding documents of the sorority itself.”
In the ruling, the judge – Alan Johnson, a graduate of the University of Wyoming – wrote: “The University of Wyoming chapter voted to admit Langford – and, more broadly, a sorority of hundreds of thousands approved.
“As the investigation begins and ends there, the Court will not define ‘woman’ today.
“The delegate of a private, volunteer organization interpreted “woman,” otherwise not defined in the nonprofit organization’s bylaws, broadly; this court may not violate the freedom of expressive association of Kappa Kappa Gamma and introduce the defined definition that plaintiffs insist upon.”
Plaintiffs’ attorney Cassy Craven told Ingraham that the judge’s refusal to address the question of how we define a woman is an indication that the threat of women’s erasure is on the rise.