Ken Paxton Sues A Gay Pool Party, America’s Worst States For Gay Men, And Ghana’s Cruel New Law
Paxton picks a fight with a pool party
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing the City of Denton to block a Pride pool party. The target is Big Gay Swim Day, set for 7 June at the Quakertown Civic Center pool, run by local groups PRIDENTON and OUTreach Denton. Paxton claims plans for gender-neutral changing rooms break the Texas Women’s Privacy Act. The organisers aren’t folding. They called the suit a “frivolous … waste of taxpayers’ time and money,” and noted the city already told them on 21 May that all-gender bathrooms weren’t allowed. They had scrubbed the wording weeks ago. The party goes ahead anyway, free to attend on 7 June, with RSVP details on the PRIDENTON event page.
America’s best and worst states for gay men
Where you live still decides how easy your life is. Out Leadership’s 2026 State LGBTQ+ Business Climate Index, now in its eighth year, ranks all 50 states, and the gap between best and worst just widened by 11 points. Massachusetts and New York lead again, with the strongest legal protections in the country. At the bottom sit the usual names: Arkansas, South Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Oklahoma, a cluster that has held the worst tier every year since 2019. USA Today broke the figures down state by state. Geography is still destiny.
Ghana’s cruel new law
Ghana’s parliament has passed one of the harshest anti-gay laws on the continent. The Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill punishes the “wilful promotion, sponsorship or support” of LGBTQIA+ activities with up to five years in prison. Same-sex acts carry up to three years. There is even a “duty to report,” meaning people face jail for failing to inform on their neighbours. President John Dramani Mahama is now under pressure from religious groups to sign it. Human Rights Watch says the law puts lives at risk and pushes citizens to “surveil and denounce one another.” Chilling stuff.
