Benson Kua
Audio By Carbonatix
On the first day of Pride Month, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton attempted to stomp out a North Texas swim party organized to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community.
“Big Gay Swim Day” is an annual all-ages swim party hosted by the Denton LGBTQ+ pride organizations PRIDENTON and OUTreach Denton. This year’s event is scheduled for June 7 at the Quakertown Civic Center, which is operated by the city of Denton but was rented out by event organizers. In early flyers advertising the event, organizers stated that the pool’s locker rooms would be kept gender-neutral.
According to a lawsuit filed by Paxton on Monday against the city of Denton, the inclusion of gender-neutral changing rooms at a publicly owned facility would be a violation of the Texas Women’s Privacy Act, or Senate Bill 8, which was passed by the Texas Legislature last year. The bill mandates that private spaces such as bathrooms and locker rooms be segregated by biological sex. In a press release announcing the lawsuit, Paxton accused Denton officials of knowingly violating state law.
“Cities cannot disregard Texas law by allowing men to change with young kids in spaces designated for women,” said Paxton. “The City of Denton had an opportunity to prevent this violation and chose to do nothing. That dereliction of duty will not stand.”
City officials, however, say they have already brought the event into compliance.
According to a statement by the Denton spokesperson Kayla Herrod, city staffers “proactively took all necessary measures to ensure” that Big Gay Swim Day did not violate state laws and had already heeded a warning from the attorney general’s office prior to Monday’s lawsuit being filed. Paxton said the city was notified on May 19 that messaging surrounding gender-neutral changing rooms violated SB 8.
In a joint statement, PRIDENTON and OUTreach Denton said Denton officials notified them of Paxton’s warning on May 21, and they removed the language from advertisements and posts about the event.
“This frivolous lawsuit is a waste of taxpayers’ time and money,” the event organizers said. “We wholeheartedly condemn Paxton’s pervasive use of transphobic, dehumanizing and false rhetoric in this attack on our community. … We look forward to celebrating and affirming Texans of all gender identities. Happy Pride.”
Herrod said that the city of Denton intends to respond to Paxton’s office to “reaffirm that the appropriate steps have been taken to ensure the changing rooms at the Civic Center Pool comply with state law.”
Bathing suit backlash
Last week, PRIDENTON announced that registration for the Big Gay Swim Day would be handled privately due to “unwanted attention” from “local Anti-LGBTQ groups.”
It was the latest obstacle the organization had faced in gearing up for a month of pride-themed celebrations. At the same time as the swim party began gaining traction among online conservative groups, the University of North Texas withdrew support for two other PRIDENTON events, citing anti-DEI state legislation.
At the time, PRIDENTON organizer Anjelica Fraga Escalante told the Observer that it was not the first time that Big Gay Swim Day, specifically, had drawn “negative attention,” despite it being one of the organization’s most popular events. She said that for many members of the Denton LGBTQ+ community, Big Gay Swim Day is their first opportunity to wear swimwear that matches the gender they identify as, but that the all-ages nature of the event had made it a target for protesters.
Fraga Escalante’s statements were made prior to Paxton’s lawsuit being filed.
“It’s a beautiful event; it’s joyful. It is really unfortunate that right-wing grifters have globbed onto it and decided that, for some reason, people having a swim party is a reason to have their panties in a bunch,” Fraga Escalante said. “We absolutely are not going to cancel because our community deserves the joy and the memories that that event brings.”
Oddly enough, this isn’t even the first time this year that a Texas Republican has set his sights on a North Texas swim party.
Just last month, Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to withhold state funding from Grand Prairie over a private event scheduled at a city-owned aquatic facility. The event was advertised as being for “Muslims only,” and Abbott said the city would lose more than $535,000 in state grants if Grand Prairie officials did not commit to “never allowing something like it again.” In response, the city canceled the gathering.
