Fed Judge Again Denies Request for Anonymity in Sorority Lawsuit

The seven Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority sisters at the University of Wyoming on Friday lost their second federal request to keep their names anonymous in their transgender woman contract lawsuit against their national organization.

"Plaintiffs have chosen to level accusations of impropriety against Defendants. They must now shoulder the burden of those accusations and walk in the public eye," U.S. District Court Alan Johnson wrote in his order on Friday afternoon.

In their initial complaint filed March 29, Jane Does I-VII claim the national organization forced them to accept a transgendered woman "Terry Smith" -- a pseudonym -- as a member contrary to national bylaws that only men may be members, and the Wyoming nonprofit sorority housing organization in charge of their sorority house.

On April 6, Johnson ordered the Jane Does to name themselves in an amended complaint to be filed by April 20. "Our system of dispute resolution does not allow Plaintiffs to cower behind an anonymity shield, especially one that is so rarely bestowed in this District or Circuit."

A day later, the Jane Does' attorneys Cassie Craven and John Knepper of Cheyenne responded that the Jane Does insist on anonymity because of the strong likelihood that naming them will lead to threats and harassment. The attorneys cited recent threats and harassment such as an assault of an anti-transgender/pro-women's rights speaker in San Franciso and a Wyoming state representative's inflammatory social media post, among other incidents.

In his order Friday afternoon, Johnson wrote these "circumstances remain unexceptional," and that they need to show they face "'real, imminent personal danger' sufficient to overcome the 'public's interest in open court proceedings,'" he wrote.

"They have not and thus, offer no basis to disturb this Court's prior Order," Johnson wrote.

In a reminiscence, the judge wrote, "I yearn for the day where litigants seek their courts unburdened by the possibility of physical reprisal. That hope may be quixotic today."

The Jane Does, he wrote, "argue that the case presents a groundbreaking issue of first impression with national implications.

"But, on the other, they say that same generalized scrutiny precipitates security risks and warrant their anonymity. Plaintiffs cannot have it both ways."

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