Attorney General Ken Paxton said Monday that his office has sued the City of Denton to block plans for gender-neutral changing rooms during a private Pride swim party at a public pool.

In a joint statement, PRIDENTON and OUTreach Denton said the lawsuit was unnecessary because the LGBTQ+ groups had already changed plans and removed mention of gender-neutral changing rooms from all posts about their fourth-annual swim event on June 7.

“This frivolous lawsuit is a waste of taxpayers’ time and money,” the groups said.

Paxton’s office didn’t immediately respond to a comment request.

In the lawsuit filed Thursday in Denton County district court, Paxton’s attorneys argued that the swim event’s plan for gender-neutral multi-occupancy changing rooms would violate Senate Bill 8, titled the Texas Women’s Privacy Act and more commonly known as the bathroom ban. The law, which took effect in December, restricts access to private spaces in public buildings based on an individual’s gender assigned at birth. The law requires government entities or public institutions to ensure compliance or face up to $125,000 in fines.

The lawsuit says Denton officials had failed to take corrective action after being notified about the plan.

“That dereliction of duty will not stand, and I will ensure that Texas cities follow our state’s laws to protect women and children from men invading their spaces,” Paxton said in a Monday statement.

No fines have been levied against the city, said Kayla Herrod, Denton’s interim director of marketing and communications.

In a statement to The Texas Tribune, 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.”

The city first received a complaint about the event on May 20, according to the lawsuit’s exhibits.

Steve Sullivan, a former planning and zoning commissioner for the city who is active in local politics as part of the Robson Ranch Conservative Club, complained in an email to local officials that the party’s promotion of gender-neutral changing rooms appeared to violate state law. He told the Tribune that he had complained about similar events to city leaders in previous years but was told nothing could be done.

“Senate Bill 8 changed that,” he said. “It’s not a gay thing, it’s a legal thing. … If you want to go swim, go swim. Just don’t break any laws, any rules or regulations, that’s all.”

Herrod responded to his email a day later, saying standard facility rules require that all existing city signs, including those for restrooms, be kept “visible and unobstructed.”

“The event itself is a private event and is not sponsored by the City,” Herrod wrote in the email that was included in the lawsuit’s exhibits. “Temporary, covered, or altered signage is not permitted in accordance with the law.”

City staff also informed PRIDENTON that same day about compliance with SB 8, according to their separate statements.

Sullivan followed by filing a complaint with Paxton’s office on May 27, according to the exhibits.

“I doubt that there is going to be somebody there making sure that they adhere to not only state law, but also city rules and regulations,” he told the Tribune Monday. “So who’s going to be in charge of that?”

The attorney general’s office filed the lawsuit a day later, attaching a May 19 screenshot of the event page on PRIDENTON’s website that includes the “gender-neutral changing rooms” language.

That page no longer exists, and the groups told the Tribune that it had been taken down on May 21. Events that remain online with that phrase are from swim parties hosted in previous years.

“Since 2022, Big Gay Swim Day has been a beautiful event where invited community members can swim, dance, and exist without fear of judgement or harassment,” PRIDENTON and OUTreach Denton said in their joint statement. “It is disappointing that bad actors have attempted to turn queer joy into political spectacle.”