(LifeSiteNews) – The City of Denton, Texas agreed not to allow men to use female changing rooms at a public pool during an LGBT “Pride” event this week after threats of legal action if they did so by Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton.
CBS News reported June 1 that the city-owned Quakertown Civic Center would be hosting a “Big Gay Swim Day” on June 7 by the groups PRIDENTON and OUTreach Denton. The event had advertised “gender-neutral changing rooms.
Paxton’s office says it warned the city May 19 that the policy would violate the Texas Women’s Privacy Act, which protects sex-segregated intimate spaces designated by actual biological sex, but the city “failed to take any corrective action,” potentially opening itself to thousands of dollars in penalties.
In response, city officials told CBS that they 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,” and would “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.”
On June 5, Paxton’s office announced that the city “agreed to maintain its usual signage separating the men’s and women’s changing areas and prevent any alteration or coverage of changing room signs. They also will prohibit renters from operating gender-neutral changing areas on the premises and require event organizers to commit to following Texas law.”
“This is a major victory for the privacy and safety of women and children,” the attorney general said. “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.”
Critics have long warned that forcing girls to share intimate facilities such as bathrooms, showers, and changing areas with members of the opposite sex violates their privacy rights, subjects them to needless emotional stress, and gives potential male predators a viable pretext to enter female bathrooms or lockers by simply claiming transgender status.
Paxton, who is currently running for U.S. Senate, has been aggressive in using the attorney general’s office to curb so-called “woke” overreach. Last month, he announced a joint state and federal settlement with Texas Children’s Hospital that included an agreement to establish the nation’s first-ever “detransition clinic” to “reverse the damage caused by the ideologically motivated physicians who harmed them.”