CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Sorority rules allow a transgender woman to belong to its University of Wyoming chapter, and a court can’t interfere with that, a sorority being sued over the matter says in seeking the lawsuit’s dismissal.
“The central issue in this case is simple: do the plaintiffs have a legal right to be in a sorority that excludes transgender women? They do not,” the motion to dismiss reads. The sorority sisters opposed to Langford’s induction could presumably change the policy if most sorority members shared their view, or they could resign if “a position of inclusion is too offensive to their personal values,” the sorority’s motion to dismiss says.“What they cannot do is have this court define their membership for them,” the motion asserts, adding that “private organizations have a right to interpret their own governing documents.
The sorority sisters’ lawsuit asks U.S. District Court Judge Alan Johnson to declare Langford’s sorority membership void and to award unspecified damages.