Six members of a University of Wyoming sorority have one month to submit an appeal in the lawsuit they brought to kick a trans woman out of their sorority.
The lawsuit has been in limbo for nearly a year, and the deadline is meant to either move the case forward or allow the court to dismiss it "on the merits."
"Plaintiffs would otherwise have a seemingly unlimited amount of time to amend this claim, defying Wyoming's statute of limitations for breaches of contract," states the May 9 order setting the deadline.
Plaintiffs launched the lawsuit in early 2023, arguing that the trans woman was not a real woman and should not have been admitted. The lawsuit sought to remove the trans woman and ban trans women from joining Kappa Kappa Gamma chapters nationwide.
The U.S. District Court of Wyoming ruled later that year that sororities are free to induct whoever they want, but said the plaintiffs could amend their complaint. The plaintiffs instead appealed the decision to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. That court sent the case back to Wyoming, saying it was improper to appeal the decision when plaintiffs still had the ability to amend their lawsuit and try again in the original court.
The plaintiffs have not filed a complaint in the nearly a year since that appeals ruling, prompting the defendants to ask the court to issue a deadline. U.S. District Court Judge Alan B. Johnson did just that.
"Let us be the first to acknowledge that this case has ended up in a rather confusing procedural Neverland," Johnson writes. "To summarize, the Tenth Circuit determined that our dismissal was not a final judgment because we intended for Plaintiffs to perfect their complaint. Plaintiffs, however, have not done so; nor have they decided to stand on their original complaint and appeal it. Consequently, the case remains in a Peter Pan-esque state of immaturity, preventing any court from adjudicating on the merits."
The court issued a 30-day deadline for the plaintiffs to refile. If they don't, the case will be over in early June.
The trans woman, Artemis Langford, is graduating from UW this semester. She told the Laramie Reporter she plans to move away from Wyoming, her home state, because of the anti-transgender laws it has passed in the last two years.
Those laws restrict access to gender-affirming care, require school counselors to out gay and transgender students to their parents, and ban transgender women and girls from high school and college sports teams.
