Ken Paxton Kicks Off Pride Month by Freaking Out Over Local ‘Big Gay Swim Day’

There’s got to be a ton of spinning plates for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) right now—but well, the busy gremlin’s always got some time on his hands for eradicating civil liberties. 

On Monday, Paxton sued the Texan city of Denton, in particular targeting its trans-friendly “Big Gay Swim Day” event, accusing it of “plan[ning] to convert the City’s lawful, sex-separated changing rooms into unlawful ‘gender neutral changing rooms.’”

Per Paxton’s (rather baseless) argument, the event is in violation of Senate Bill 8—a draconian, anti-trans law that passed last year, which imposed sex-based restrictions on which changing rooms and restrooms people can use. Specifically, it says publicly owned “private spaces” must be designated on the basis of biological sex; and threatens a $25,000 penalty for a first offense, and up to $125,000 for later ones.

In his lawsuit, Paxton demands a temporary restraining order against the event, and injunctive relief. 

Still, the organizers of Big Gay Swim Day have maintained they’ve already planned to accommodate SB 8, and thus already removed mention of all gender-neutral changing rooms from posts advertising the event. “This frivolous lawsuit is a waste of taxpayers’ time and money,” PRIDENTON and OUTreach Denton said in a joint statement. “Ken Paxton’s history of protecting predators instead of prioritizing the safety of children is well-documented and does not align with this lawsuit’s alleged motivation.” (More on this shortly.)

According to court records, the city first received a complaint about the event in late May, when a local man involved with state politics said the party’s promotion of the event seemed like it would violate state law. City staff apparently immediately informed PRIDENTON afterwards about its need to comply with SB 8, which the event organizers said it would. 

Alas, currently, (and unnervingly), AG Paxton is very close to snagging a seat in the upper chamber in November, after having slithered his way into the Senate GOP nomination—despite holding a long track record of things that should have disqualified him long ago. To recap: Paxton’s the same idiot that repeatedly tried to rail against shield laws by suing a New York-based doctor for allegedly sending abortion pills into Texas; that indicted a midwife with 15 felony counts after she—quite literally—only did her job; and that once, unsuccessfully, tried to implement the state’s abortion ban in Europe. Oh! And a day before Paxton’s run-off elections, an alleged pedophile that the AG struck a sweetheart deal with also walked free, after having finished his sentence nearly 30 days early. 

Still, the anti-abortion freak is keeping himself busy with keeping the narrative that his opponent, Dem. James Talarico, is worse than him—namely insulting Talarico for being a vegan after he ate an egg-and-cheese taco in May. On top of that, he’s apparently still figuring out his messy marital affairs—most recently agreeing with his wife, who announced their divorce last year, that they’re no longer pursuing a divorce trial. But, well, you know what they say. The devil works hard.