Prominent Kappa Kappa Gamma alumnae are suing their sorority, accusing the organization of a conspiracy to abandon its mission as a sisterhood in allowing the induction of a man into the University of Wyoming chapter. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, broadens the scope of a first case involving six female students who were forced to share their KKG sorority with the man.
Former Kappa Kappa Gamma national foundation president Patsy Levang and longtime member and active contributor Cheryl Tuck-Smith, whose memberships were terminated in October, as first reported by National Review, are among six alumna plaintiffs filing a complaint against the headquarters. Their accusations include multiple violations of governing rules, fraudulent activity, failure to abide by free-speech laws, defamation, and breaches of contracts.
Levang and Tuck-Smith, members of the Independent Women’s Network, were ousted over alleged policy infractions related to their advocacy on behalf of six female University of Wyoming students who sued the sorority in March 2023 after a man, Artemis Langford, was admitted into their chapter. Also on Thursday, the Independent Women’s Law Center, representing the students, filed its final brief in the first lawsuit in the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals demanding that KKG keep membership exclusive to women.
KKG accused the two women of violating a host of policies by using the organization’s contact list to fundraise for the female students’ legal defense, which they deny, and by disparaging the sorority’s decision to admit a male student in various media interviews.
One of the claims in the new case, Levang v. Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity, is wrongful termination. While Kappa stipulates clear conditions for firing, “Patsy and Cheryl did not even come close to meeting any of that,” said May Mailman, the director of the Independent Women’s Law Center and co-counsel for the plaintiffs in Levang v. KKG. She is also the lead counsel on Westenbroek v. Kappa Kappa Gamma, the case brought by the six female students.
“All they said was that men are not allowed in Kappa’s female-only groups,” Mailman clarified.
The lawsuit argues that the courts have a public-policy interest in preventing these kinds of arbitrary dismissals, with the pair asserting that they never resorted to being derogatory toward the organization but only alerted other members that a man was joining.
“If organizations were all allowed to root out the truth from their organizations, in 1984 style, it would really be bad for society,” Mailman said.
After joining the sorority in 1969, Levang was a Kappa volunteer in good standing from 1979 to 2012, serving at the provincial, regional, and national levels. First, she was the province director of chapters, then a member of the regional program team, then a member of the board of the national foundation, and then president of the national foundation. However, since 2012, she hasn’t been involved in any kind of volunteer position that would make her a de facto spokeswoman for Kappa. The sorority claims the two acted as representatives of KKG when they sounded the alarm on Langford’s admission in their personal capacity.
“We’re kind of like the town criers saying, ‘Did you know what’s going on?’” Tuck-Smith said.
The plaintiffs are also reintroducing a breach-of-fiduciary-duty claim, seen in the existing litigation with the six Kappa members, alleging that KKG did not follow its own bylaws. KKG unilaterally redefined “woman” without going through the proper channels to change its bylaws to reflect that new definition, enabling the organization to rubber-stamp Langford’s membership, the first lawsuit contended.
Bypassing rules has been a repeat pattern of KKG’s leadership. The headquarters has not just sanctioned the admission of men into local chapters; the second lawsuit outlines KKG’s elevation to the organization’s leadership of another transgender-identifying man. In 2020, KKG installed Tracy Nadzieja, formerly known as “Tom” in college, into its senior leadership as a district director.
Nadzieja has appeared in at least one press interview since starting to represent KKG. And he is featured in other leadership promotional videos on Kappa’s social media channels.
“In addition to the facts that are already out there, this really highlights Kappa leadership’s discrimination against women in favor of men,” Mailman said. “He’s been promoted to leadership in ways that women would never have been promoted in Kappa. For an organization that is dedicated to a mission to promote women to actually discriminate against women is just a clear violation of the whole organization’s purpose.”
In college, Nadzieja rushed and landed a spot in the fraternity Sigma Pi before he declared himself female. While still identifying as a woman, Nadzieja was appointed by Sigma Pi to be Arizona Province Archon, a role which oversees all parts of the fraternity including chapters and alumni clubs in their geographic area. Nadzieja was assigned to work with the fraternity chapters at Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University.
Sometime after, Nadzieja decided to join Kappa. Officially, no Kappa can resign from the sorority and become a member of another Greek organization.
“No woman would be allowed to do that,” Tuck-Smith said.
Kappa’s blatant disregard for its own bylaws could be injurious to the organization, which is why the plaintiffs are suing on behalf of it, Mailman said.
“Kappa is exempt from Title IX because it is a sorority, and if actually they are running it not as a sorority but as a co-ed organization, then you’re putting Kappa’s whole status as a sorority at risk and therefore their Title IX exemption,” Mailman said. “All of these types of activities are part of a breach of their duty to preserve Kappa’s mission, to preserve the legal exemptions that Kappa has. This has actually harmed Kappa.”
Kappa’s membership of alumnae has dropped more than 20 percent since 2020, Mailman said.
“It’s harming the organization in very tangible ways,” she said.
As personal legal remedies, Levang and Tuck-Smith are asking that their memberships be restored. The entire group of plaintiffs are also asking KKG to stop violating its bylaws, to remove the current members of its Fraternity Council and appoint a temporary slate of council members before the next election, and to require Kappa’s panhellenic delegate to abide by and uphold panhellenic rules that require promoting sororities as a single-sex organization.