MSNBC praises trans sorority member accused of making girls uncomfortable
MSNBC host calls Artemis Langford, transgender student accused of making girls uncomfortable, a 'brave woman.'
MSNBC did a sympathetic interview with a transgender sorority member from the University of Wyoming, after the student was accused of "peeping" on girls, photographing them and asking them about their sex lives and genitals, according to allegations in a lawsuit.
Artemis Langford is a transgender student – a biological male – who joined the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority chapter last October. Girls came forward in a suit in March expressing their discomfort with sharing living quarters with Langford.
The left-wing network's host, Yasmin Vossoughian, interviewed Langford Sunday and suggested that the trans sorority member's story was about a lack of acceptance among the girls in the sorority. Vossoughian called Langford a "brave woman."
"The case has drawn widespread attention as schools continue to be a front line in these fights for LGBTQ rights and for the very brave woman at the center of it all is joining me now," Vossoughian said.
MSNBC segment did not mention the claims of alleged leering behavior by Langford mentioned in the lawsuit. (MSNBC/screenshot)
"Langford… is a student… [who] made history last fall as the first openly transgender woman to join a sorority. Being the first can be incredibly hard, and this case is no exception. But this week brought some very good news for Artemis," Vossoughian continued.
After several current and former sorority members sued the national sorority to revoke Langford's membership, a judge dismissed the case on August 29, claiming that no policies were violated in allowing the trans student to join.
The judge also added that it wasn't the court's place to determine what a woman is, saying, "Plaintiffs request the Court to insert itself into this controversial political debate and declare that a private organization can only interpret the term ‘woman’ using Plaintiffs’ exclusionary definition of biologically born females."
According to the allegations in the lawsuit, Langford "has been ‘watching’ the female members of the sorority house." It also alleged that during one of these incidents, Langford had a visible "erection."
Langford also "repeatedly questioned the women about what vaginas look like [and about their] breast cup size," the lawsuit said.
On another occasion, a sorority sister said Langford became "sexually aroused" looking at a girl without a shirt on.
"Langford returned and stood silently in the corner of the room near the door while other pledges changed from sleeping garments into other clothing. [The sorority girl] did not know that Langford had returned… [The girl] removed her shirt. After she had put on a new shirt, [the girl] turned around and discovered Langford staring at her. After the morning activities, another Kappa member informed [the girl] that while watching her, Langford had become sexually aroused," the lawsuit said.
Yasmin Vossoughian interviews transgender sorority member. (Fox News Digital )
The lawsuit also alleged that Langford had limited verbal interactions with the girls, but would stare often.
"Instead, Langford stares, following the women with his eyes… 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," the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit also accused Langford of "conduct [that]… was inappropriate and threatening."
MSNBC's segment did not raise the specific allegations in the lawsuit against Langford. Fox News Digital reached out to MSNBC for comment and did not immediately receive a response.
The trans sorority member described hostile treatment by some students on campus.
"One person came out to me saying that, 'Oh, they're going to pray for me…' Others have been just very hostile with acts of aggression or glares and bumps into like someone like purposely tries to hit into you," Landford said.
The lawsuit claimed that Langford violated sorority policies by joining a sorority despite – as it said – not being a biological woman or making efforts to appear female.
"He has not undergone treatments to create a more feminine appearance, such as female hormones, feminization surgery, or laser hair removal. Plaintiffs often observe Langford with the facial hair one would expect on a man who either did not shave that morning or whose facial hair has regrown by the evening," the lawsuit said.
The host then asked the trans student what made Langford "want to stay" in the sorority, "despite everything that you've been through."
Langford told MSNBC, "I'm certainly not the first trans person to ever be attacked… I don't think I'll be the last. But I want people to know that it's never okay for that kind of scrutiny [to be] on a person just… because I'm trans. And I hope that even if there's one person out there that feels that their identity is being attacked, that it's okay to be who they are, and it's never okay to be attacked [for] an identity."
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Fox News' Lindsay Kornick and Yael Halon contributed to this report.