Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing the city of Denton and city officials for “allowing grown men in changing rooms with Texas children and women at event hosted at publicly owned swimming pool,” the attorney general's office announced in a June 1 press release.
The lawsuit is Paxton's attempt to keep the city from allowing the nonprofits Pridenton and OUTreach to create “gender-neutral” changing rooms for their June 7 “Big Gay Swim Day” event at the Civic Center Pool.
The event is open to all ages, as Paxton pointed out, but registration is required to attend due to limited spots, according to Pridenton and OUTreach Denton on social media. The link to RSVP to attend has not been shared publicly.
"Pridenton and OUTreach Denton are disturbed and concerned that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against the City of Denton in response to “Big Gay Swim Day,” our fourth annual Pride month swim party. This frivolous lawsuit is a waste of taxpayers’ time and money," the organizations said in a joint statement.
The event is part of Pridenton's annual lineup of Pride Month events throughout the month of June.
Paxton is seeking temporary and permanent injunctive relief that would bar the city from permitting future violations of the Texas Women’s Privacy Act, a law that mandates political subdivisions that include municipalities “to take ‘every reasonable step’ to ensure that individuals of the opposite sex do not enter spaces designated for the other sex."
In Paxton's release, it alleges that the city of Denton received written notice on May 19 and "failed to take any corrective action or provide assurances that the Center’s changing rooms would be used in accordance with their lawful sex-specific designations."
Pridenton said that city staff informed the organization that all-gender bathrooms were not permitted at city facilities on May 21. In response, the organizations "removed this language from all posts and advertisements about this year’s events, in compliance with these expectations."
In an email to the Denton Record-Chronicle, Kayla Herrod, the city’s interim director of marketing and communications, said the upcoming rental is private and not sponsored by the city.
Herrod said the Civic Center Pool is available for private rentals for two hours after it closes to the public.
“Prior to any action by the Attorney General, staff proactively took all necessary measures to ensure full compliance with state law in advance of PRIDENTON’s rental of the Civic Center Pool on June 7, including informing the organizers that certain elements of their advertising conflicted with state law and advising them of the requirement to comply,” Herrod said.
“The City intends to respond to the Texas Office of the Attorney General to reaffirm that the appropriate steps have been taken to ensure the changing rooms at the Civic Center Pool comply with state law."
This is a developing story.
CHRISTIAN McPHATE can be reached at 940-220-4299 and cmcphate@dentonrc.com.
For more than 120 years, the Denton Record-Chronicle has been Denton County's source for locally produced, fact-based journalism. Your support through a tax-deductible donation or low-cost subscription is vital to our ability to deliver credible, relevant, unique coverage of our community.
