Texas Attorney General and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton claimed on Friday he secured a “major victory” in a lawsuit from the state over an LGBTQ+ pool party — even though the suit has been dropped without any apparent changes on the ground.
Last Thursday, Texas sued the city of Denton, located outside of Dallas-Fort Worth, over the planned rental of its Civic Center Pool for a private “Big Gay Swim Day” event. Paxton’s office alleged that city officials hadn’t done enough to ensure event organizers complied with a state law known as SB 8 barring gender-neutral changing rooms.
By the following week, however, the city and state had agreed to dismiss the suit, with Denton saying it hadn’t made any changes because it was already following the law in regards to sex-segregated spaces. Paxton nonetheless framed this outcome as a significant win.
“This is a major victory for the privacy and safety of women and children,” Paxton said in a statement on Friday. “The City of Denton has now agreed to follow the law and ensure that men are not allowed in women’s and girl’s changing areas. I will continue to ensure that every government entity in Texas complies with our laws protecting women and children.”
The city of Denton, as well as the groups organizing the event, PRIDENTON and OUTreach Denton, said they were already complying with state bathroom rules before Paxton got involved.
“The City of Denton has consistently maintained compliance with state law regarding the upcoming private rental of the Civic Center Pool by PRIDENTON,” Denton’s interim director of marketing and communications, Kayla Herrod, wrote in a statement on Friday. “Because the conditions sought by the Texas Office of the Attorney General reflected measures the City had proactively implemented before the lawsuit, the Denton City Council agreed to terms that were already in place to secure the dismissal of the lawsuit and avoid the unnecessary use of taxpayer resources on continued legal action.”
An exhibit in the lawsuit, dated May 21, noted that city rental policy already required keep all existing bathroom signage in place, and Herrod said city officials also met with the event planners to “communicate Denton’s requirements prohibiting both the covering or alteration of existing signs and the creation of gender-neutral changing areas.”
“This frivolous lawsuit was a political stunt to gain attention for Ken Paxton's Senate campaign,” PRIDENTON Anjelica Fraga Escalante told The Independent. “We are relieved for the taxpayers of Texas that this suit was rightfully dropped.”
“The event will go forward, and we will comply with state law, which was our plan before the lawsuit was filed,” they added. “SB 8 is an unjust law. It is transphobic and racist and does nothing to protect women. Too often, bathroom bills such as SB 8 actively harm cis and trans women alike.”
The Independent has contacted Paxton’s office and OUTreach Denton for comment.
The event organizers previously condemned the suit, writing in a joint statement on Monday that it was a “frivolous” attack and “waste of taxpayers’ time and money.”
The groups said they were informed by city officials on May 21 that they were not permitted to have all-gender bathrooms as a result of Texas’s SB 8 law. As a result, they struck any language about such facilities from posts and advertisements about the event, the groups said.
The organizers nonetheless argued the law is vague and “gives license to harass and surveil any person who does not present or conform within the narrow limitations of an oppressive gender binary.”
Denton’s Big Gay Swim Day has taken place since 2022, and organizers wrote on social media that the party is “a beautiful event where invited community members can swim, dance, and exist without fear of judgement or harassment.”
