Sorority files appeal after being ordered by lower court to admit transgender woman accused of leering at members while sporting an erection

A University of Wyoming sorority sorority has filed an appeal after a a court ordered them to admit a transgender woman accused of inappropriately leering at members.

A US appeals court in Denver is set to hear arguments Tuesday in a lawsuit brought by six Kappa Kappa Gamma sisters who are challenging the admission of Artemis Langford into their local chapter.

A judge threw out the lawsuit last year, ruling that he could not override how the private, voluntary organization defined a woman and order that she not belong.

The sorority sisters who sued said Langford's presence in their sorority house made them uncomfortable - and alleged how Langford 'has, while watching members enter the sorority house, had an erection visible through his leggings. Other times, he has had a pillow in his lap.' 

They also accused her of taking photos of them at a slumber party and to have made inappropriate comments to them. 

In the lawsuit, members of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority chapter challenged Artemis Langford's (rear, far left) admission by casting doubt on whether sorority rules allow a transgender woman into the organization

A judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by University of Wyoming sorority sisters contesting the admission of a transgender woman - Artemis Langford (pictured) - whom they accused of being a sexual predator 

The case at Wyoming’s only four-year public university has drawn widespread attention as transgender people fight for more acceptance in schools, athletics, workplaces and elsewhere, while others push back.

In their lawsuit, six members of the sorority chapter challenge Langford’s admission by casting doubt on whether sorority rules allowed a transgender woman.

The lawsuit and appeal describe in detail how Langford’s presence made the women feel uncomfortable in the sorority house in Laramie, Wyoming, yet sorority leaders overrode their concerns after a vote by the local chapter members to admit Langford.

Last summer, Wyoming US District Court Judge Alan Johnson in Cheyenne sided with the sorority and Langford by ruling that sorority bylaws don’t define who’s a woman.

At the heart of the lawsuit was the issue of defining a 'woman', as the sorority sisters argued that because KKG's governing documents define it as a space exclusively for females, the organization broke its own rules by admitting a biological male

Last summer, Wyoming US District Court Judge Alan Johnson in Cheyenne sided with the sorority and Langford by ruling that sorority bylaws don’t define who’s a woman 

Filing in the three-judge U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, attorneys for the six sorority sisters continue to argue that sorority leaders have ignored sorority bylaws that they contend shouldn’t allow transgender women to be members.

Johnson’s ruling gave too much deference to sorority leaders in allowing them to define a woman under membership requirements, the sorority sisters argue on appeal.

Unlike in the original lawsuit, Langford is not included in the appeal. 

The national Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and its president, Mary Pat Rooney, are the current defendants.

The appeal brings fresh attention to transgender college students as the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority sisters in the lawsuit, their attorney and others plan a 'save sisterhood' rally at the courthouse before the hearing.