Her friend talked of being supported through tough times, helping philanthropic causes, finding a “forever home” she could rely on for the rest of her life.Īrtemis remembers dismissing the idea with a laugh. It sounded nothing like the movie stereotypes of keg parties and elaborate hazing. (William Wan/The Washington Post) A ‘forever home’Īs a freshman, Artemis had listened to a friend describe life in a sorority. And she stopped attending many of the sorority's meetings.
Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority leaders and Artemis decided that she should live in the dorms instead of the sorority house - for her safety and theirs, given the death threats and controversy stemming from her membership. But when she reached her assigned dorm, the parking lot was jam-packed, so Artemis reluctantly pulled into a space on Greek Row. She and chapter leaders had agreed that she shouldn’t live in the sorority house, for her safety and theirs. It was almost noon by the time she reached campus. She worried how others in rural Wyoming might perceive her. She drove quickly, not stopping once in six hours to eat or use the bathroom. So on an early morning in late August, Artemis, wearing a black dress and denim jacket, got in her car, shut the door and backed out of her father’s driveway. Over the summer, she thought about quitting but decided against it - for herself, for the precedent it could set for other trans students and for the sisterhood she still hoped to find. 24, hoping to avoid others during the six-hour trip to Laramie, Wyo.
“It was a gut punch after working so hard to get in to realize there were people who never wanted me there in the first place.”Īfter receiving death threats and being sued by her own sorority sisters, Artemis was nervous about returning to campus for the fall semester. “Hate from strangers is one thing,” Artemis said. On March 27, they filed a lawsuit in federal court against Artemis and Kappa Kappa Gamma. That’s when Artemis discovered members of her sorority - seven sisters out of the 40-some members - were working with lawyers to oust her. Police assigned extra patrols to the sorority house.īut the most hurtful accusations came this past spring. Right-wing pundits portrayed her on national television as a predator - as a perverted man who faked his way into a sorority to leer at women. She thought she had finally found sisterhood and a place to belong after years of shame and loneliness. It wasn’t what she imagined last year when she joined Kappa Kappa Gamma at the University of Wyoming, becoming the first transgender woman in the state to be inducted into a sorority.
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