The Greeks don’t want no freaks
(Title of one of the more obscure Eagles songs. And, trigger warning: possible “misgendering” based on actual sex, or no evidence of its having been changed.)
The Greeks are getting freaks whether they like it or not—at least the Greeks of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority. You may have followed the story of Artemis Langford, a male student admitted by sorority bigwigs to the University of Wyoming Chapter despite his not meeting the academic requirements to join. Seven of the forty actual female members of the sorority have sued to have him expelled. They say he’s stared at them, been seen in the living quarters with erections underneath mesh tights, and has asked invasive questions about their bodily functions. He doesn’t particularly “pass,” and one sorority sister said “he has made no efforts to physically look like a girl.”
In a way, I feel sorry for the kid. He’s autistic, and apparently his mother thought joining a sorority would help him make new friends. This dive into the deep end of the pool—sharing living quarters with females despite not being one—would be a challenge for anyone with normal social skills. It’s no way to get mainstreamed into a population of women. There are campus clubs and activities in which it would likely be easier to make friends and work on one’s transition; campus newspapers are always looking for volunteers.
The plaintiffs lost at the District Court level, because the sorority bylaws do not define what a woman is. One can only assume that was not thought necessary when KKG incorporated as a fraternity, because there was not yet such a thing as a sorority. The plaintiffs have appealed to the Circuit Court. Meanwhile, however, KKG national leadership has retaliated against two alumna members who supported the lawsuit and raised funds for legal expenses with expulsion from the sorority—including the one who’d previously been a Kappa Kappa Gamma National Foundation president.
The fix was in! On behalf of somebody who hasn’t been “fixed.” And now, the bigwigs are doubling down by considering for a leadership position in this coming April’s online election someone they admitted as an alumna member in 2020 despite no evidence of his having been “fixed.” While it’s difficult to hide the trans-identification status of a superior court judge, the plaintiffs in a new lawsuit allege that the background of Tracy Nadzieja, who was elected as district director in 2022 is something of which “[m]embers remain unaware.”
By all account, Tracy Nadzieja is a perfectly competent judge. He’s also a board member for one-n-ten, a Phoenix-based nonprofit focused on minors and youths. One of its programs is a peer support program to children undergoing medical transitions at Phoenix Children’s Hospital. He’s explained in an interview three years ago that he came out as transgender after 15 years of marriage, leaving behind a wife and children.
An earlier interview gave the impression he and his wife were attempting to sort things out. It also gave the impression that a small number of the criminal defendants who come before him don’t see a woman on the bench. Nadzieja said in this interview that he’s happy to wake up every morning getting to be his real self, a way of phrasing it common with trans-identified people who have not had surgery. Had I any indication that Nadzieja has, I’d be perfectly willing to use “she/her pronouns” for the judge. This is on the principle that identities are vaporware, and that it don’t mean a thing if you still got that schwing.
It's this kind of background, particularly making it through 15 years of marriage and fathering children, that tells me this is someone not suited for a leadership role in a national sorority. This is someone with zero experience being a young woman, and particularly a young woman who’s gone through the growth experiences and female bonding that are the benefits of sorority membership.
It could very well be possible that someone who took off two or three years to go through complete transition, and got a late start at college and sorority membership, could have an experience that comes pretty darned close to those of normal young women. It’s possible she could develop an enhanced empathy for young sorority women, especially if combined with a sense of gratitude for not having been precluded from the sorority experience. Such an individual could conceivably do a wonderful job in her sorority’s national leadership.
As for Judge Nadzieja, though, providing peer support for putatively trans kids and youth is not exactly the kind of service project really suitable for a sorority. While being a mentor to young people is generally an admirable (and necessary) thing, I think that a focus is on trans youth and young adults is incompatible with the focus on young women that a sorority leadership position requires. This is particularly so now that young women need support and, if that were available, mentoring on navigating a world in which still-male or male puberty-advantaged transgenders impinge on them. Female leadership today must involve cultivating the skills it takes to navigate today’s sex line-traversing world.
Someone who lived enough of a life as a man to be married a decent amount of time and to father children, and is out to advocate for similarly situated male individuals, isn’t going to be capable of providing that kind of leadership. Take your seat on the bench and run with it, Your Honor. Enjoy waking up every day feeling like yourself, even if your drive to do so didn’t kick in till later in life. Just realize your limitations and leave the sororities alone.