Texas sues Denton over gender-neutral changing rooms at LGBTQ+ event

DENTON, Texas - Texas is suing the City of Denton to block an event that offers gender-neutral dressing rooms.

Paxton says the "big gay swim day" at a publicly owned swimming pool violates state law and would allow grown men in changing rooms with women and children.

What is the 'big gay swim day' controversy?

What we know:

The two LGBTQ+ non-profit groups rented a Denton public swimming pool for a private party on June 7th, after it was closed to the public.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is now suing the city, saying the upcoming event, ‘big gay swim day’, violates the state’s anti-trans bathroom bill, alleging the organizers "plan to convert the city’s lawful, sex-separated changing rooms into unlawful, gender-neutral changing rooms."

City of Denton responds to Texas AG lawsuit

What they're saying:

The City of Denton issued a statement in response to the lawsuit, saying its "staff proactively took all necessary measures to ensure full compliance with state law…, including informing the organizers that certain elements of their advertising conflicted with state law and advising them of the requirement to comply."

Legal experts weigh-in on Texas bathroom law

Local perspective:

Constitutional law attorney David Coale has gone over the filings. 

"The AG lawsuit says that it violates that law. This is a public venue, you have to do it this way, you can’t do it another way and until you fix that, you can’t proceed," said Coale. 

He says challenging the law poses substantial risks. That could prove costly in terms of potential fines levied on the city. 

"Honestly, I think the city is probably going to cave and say this is the way we’re going to have to do the bathrooms. Because I think the constitutional issues and the policy arguments about the bathroom are legitimate ones, and they are arguments that probably will get heard in a Texas court, but they’re not going to get heard in the next seven days," said Coale. 

"The statute says if you have a public place, the bathrooms have to be organized a certain way. There are constitutional challenges to laws like that all across the country and how that might be sorted out in Texas. Who knows? But that’s not really the issue today. The question today is what does the law say and are they doing that?"

Will the Denton LGBTQ+ pool event be canceled?

What's next:

We reached out to two groups putting together the event. Neither responded in time for our story. 

The state’s lawsuit asks the court for a temporary restraining order, unless the city takes every reasonable step to insure private spaces at the community pool are used by the appropriate sex, according to biological gender.

DentonKen PaxtonLGBTQ