Lawsuit targets trans athletes
Paxton accuses U.S. swimming nonprofit of ‘deceptive’ practices
AUSTIN — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued a major adult swimming organization, accusing the nonprofit of “deceptive” practices for allowing transgender women athletes to compete against cisgender women swimmers.
The lawsuit, which was filed in Denton County, does not accuse U.S. Masters Swimming of breaking any state laws focusing on trans athlete participation. Instead, Paxton sued the organization for violating consumer protection laws. U.S. Masters Swimming is a competitive swimming membership organization with over 60,000 adult swimmers.
While Gov. Greg Abbott has signed laws in recent years barring transgender athletes from participating on sports teams that align with their gender identity, those laws have been focused on K-12 school sports or at the collegiate level.
There is no law in Texas that prohibits transgender adults from participating in a competition or on a team — like U.S. Masters Swimming — that aligns with their gender identity.
“The organization has cowered to radical activists pushing
gender warfare, and this lawsuit will hold USMS accountable for its actions,” Paxton said in a news release Thursday announcing the lawsuit.
AG launched investigation
The lawsuit comes after the attorney general’s office launched an investigation into the swimming organization following a swim meet in San Antonio in April. At the swim meet, two transgender women competed in various races and won some of the competitions, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit says that the organization “undermined the trust of consumers through false, deceptive, and misleading practices.”
In a statement, U.S. Masters Swimming said it was surprised by the lawsuit and only learned of it on social media. The organization has been cooperating with the attorney general’s investigation, the statement said.
“It is deeply disappointing to see our organization and individual members publicly targeted in a lawsuit that appears to be more about generating headlines than seeking justice,” the statement continued.
As a result of Paxton’s investigation, U.S. Masters Swimming instituted an “interim eligibility policy,” which took effect July 1. Under the policy, transgender women are not eligible to receive records, top 10 times or awards in the women’s category at any organization-sanctioned event.
In the lawsuit, the attorney general’s office says the new policy change is “too little, too late.”
Jonathan Gooch, a spokesman for the LGBTQ advocacy organization Equality Texas, questioned Paxton’s lawsuit that accuses the organization of deceptive business practices.
“When a business tells you they are going to do something and then they do it, that is the literal opposite of fraud,” Gooch said in a statement. “It’s called transparency, but I see why that would be hard to understand for Paxton.”
Paxton’s pattern
Paxton’s decision to use consumer protection laws to target organizations is not new and has become increasingly common under Paxton’s tenure. Last year, The Texas Tribune reported that Paxton — who is currently challenging Texas Sen. John Cornyn in the 2026 U.S. Senate race — has repeatedly used consumer protection laws to go after political targets.
Those targets include organizations that assist or support LGBTQ people, the Tribune reported.
Colin Provost, an associate professor of public policy at University College London, has researched how state attorneys general in the United States work together to enforce consumer protection laws.
Potentially no complaint
In an interview Friday morning with The Dallas Morning News, Provost said the lawsuit doesn’t appear to indicate that a formal complaint was ever filed with the attorney general’s office — which follows a pattern under Paxton’s tenure.
“There don’t appear to be any obvious victims of fraud, right, complaining that they’ve been had,” Provost said.
Spokespeople for the attorney general’s office did not respond to a question asking if a complaint was filed with the agency against U.S. Masters Swimming.
A complaint is not necessary to launch an investigation, and some of the participants in the April swim meet in San Antonio spoke to media outlets or published editorial columns after placing behind some of the transgender women.
In the lawsuit, Paxton asks the court to institute civil fines of more than $1,000,000 and permanent injunctive relief.
Often, the outcomes of the consumer protection lawsuits Paxton has filed are more about getting a judge to issue an injunction, Provost said.
“It’s often not really about restitution to the consumer,” he added. “It’s more about injunctive relief, like stopping the activity in question, and, in this case, that would be allowing transgender athletes to compete as a member of a gender that they weren’t assigned at birth.”