Dallas schools to ensure trans athletes don't participate in girls' sports after video exposes loopholes

BRAZOS, TEXAS: A viral undercover video led to legal scrutiny by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, culminating in a newly announced agreement between his office and the Dallas Independent School District (Dallas ISD).

The controversy began when a video surfaced, produced by the conservative outlet Accuracy in Media, featuring a Dallas ISD LGBTQ youth coordinator allegedly discussing ways to work around Texas law to allow trans students to participate in girls’ sports.

Undercover videos spark Texas probe into alleged gender policy loopholes

The video showed the Dallas ISD LGBTQ youth coordinator saying that Texas had apparently not made any distinction between providing either an original or updated birth certificate for school sports gender eligibility. 

As per Fox News, in the recording, the youth coordinator, identified as Mahoganie Gaston, stated, "Always refining, you know? They find the loopholes in everything."

The advisor added, "I tell people all the time, I will go to jail for saving their child’s life. I guess no conservative kids come out gay."

These statements raised red flags for state officials and prompted Paxton’s office to launch a formal inquiry.

Shortly after the video made headlines, another Accuracy in Media video was released, this time involving an official from Irving Independent School District.

The Irving ISD official was recorded discussing the same alleged loophole. The footage shows a man, allegedly Reny Lizardo, the executive director of campus operations for the Irving Independent School District, telling an undercover journalist, "It’s not illegal if you don’t get caught."

He said this with regard to doctoring a child's birth certificate to circumvent the Texas state law banning trans athletes from competing in girls' sports. 

"Could you legally change the gender on a birth certificate? I don't know enough about that subject," he is heard saying in the video. "If you can get that done, and you turn us a birth certificate that says ‘this gender,’ that's the gender we go with."

When asked if a hypothetical trans athlete swapped their gender on the certificate to female and if they would be able to then play on the girls' soccer team, the man responds, "Yeah."

However, the man also pointed out that the school district could plead plausible deniability if the athlete's birth gender was uncovered in the case of a lawsuit.

"If a parent found out or a student found out and said, ‘Wait a second. This person isn’t this gender,’ and they, like, sued the district, we’d be in trouble. But, we can also say, 'We didn’t know' ... So, there’s a plausible deniability, I guess," he explained.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott had previously addressed the footage in a post on X (formerly Twitter) and called for him to be fired.

"This Irving ISD Administrator should be fired on the spot. Both criminal & civil investigations must be taken against both the Administrator & Irving ISD. Has Irving ISD and its employees been involved in a fraudulent breach of state laws & a cover up? We must get the facts," Abbott wrote. 

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton secures agreement w Dallas ISD

In response to the two videos, Ken Paxton’s office formally requested extensive documentation from both Dallas ISD and Irving ISD on February 6, seeking clarity on their internal policies and practices.

By March 31, Paxton escalated the matter by filing a legal petition to conduct depositions of key Dallas ISD officials to investigate potential violations of state law.

According to a report in the Dallas Observer, among the DISD (Dallas ISD) officials the attorney general looks to depose are superintendent Stephanie Elizalde and LGBT youth program coordinator Gaston.

Gaston was apparently filmed telling a parent that a male student would be allowed to participate in girls’ sports if the parent changed the birth certificate of their son to “female,” as per a statement. It further read, "She also said that the district 'find[s] the loopholes in everything' and that she is willing to go to jail for defying Texas law."

On April 11, Paxton’s office announced that Dallas ISD had agreed to an order that ensures the district complies with Texas law and prevents further exploitation of the so-called loopholes.

"I urge all other school districts to fulfill their legal obligations to protect girls’ sports and end any attempts to circumvent Texas law. Biological males have no place in girls’ sports, and any Texas public schools doing otherwise will be held accountable," said Paxton in a public statement.

This issue ties directly into legislation passed by Texas in June 2023 — the Save Women’s Sports Act.

This law strictly prohibits transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports. 

According to the law, schools can only accept the gender listed on a student’s original birth certificate unless the changes were made to correct a clerical error.

This law prohibits transgender athletes from participating in college sports in Texas, restricting them from competing on teams that align with their gender identity. The legislation builds upon a 2021 law that banned transgender students in K-12 schools from participating in sports that align with their gender identity.