An anti-transgender event organized by conservative political activists at a Fort Worth community center April 20 has been canceled after community members raised concerns that it would violate the city’s nondiscrimination policy.
“Community Centers are dedicated to upholding a welcoming environment free from discrimination,” city spokesperson Reyne Telles wrote in a statement to the Fort Worth Report.
While opponents of the event, titled “The Danger of Transgenderism,” praised the city for canceling the event reservation at the Victory Forest Community Center, organizers said the city’s actions represented a violation of their First Amendment rights.
“We think it’s unacceptable and inappropriate that they are doing this,” Carlos Turcios, director of Texas Latinos United for Conservative Action, said. Texas Latinos United for Conservative Action was one of six organizations co-hosting the event. “That is a violation of the First Amendment. The city of Fort Worth, (which) is taxpayer funded, cannot dictate what opinions are allowed.”
Lynette Sharp is one of the people who raised concerns about the event. When Sharp first heard it’d be taking place at the Victory Forest Community Center, she was aghast.
“It’s against the city’s own policy to host them,” she said.
Sharp, a member of No Hate in Texas, was referencing the Fort Worth’s community center policy and procedures manual. The manual specifies that groups that practice or profess discrimination on the basis of sex and other identity markers aren’t allowed to use the community center for events.
District 11 council member Jeanette Martinez, who represents the area around the community center, said staff didn’t have information about the nature of the event before it was booked.
“I don’t believe it’s an event that should have been allowed, had the community center been aware of it,” Martinez said. “I don’t believe it would have been allowed.”
Telles said while organizers paid the required security deposit for a reservation in March, they never returned a signed reservation form, which includes a link to the procedures manual. Upon further investigation, staff determined the event violated the nondiscrimination clause outlined in the manual.
“City staff has notified the event organizer of the cancellation and will provide a full refund to the individual who booked the space,” Telles said in a statement.
The dispute over the now-canceled event has raised questions about how far cities can go in limiting access to government facilities. Legal experts say Fort Worth’s restrictions on community center reservations could prompt a constitutional challenge under the First Amendment.
“You have to remember that offensive speech is still constitutionally protected,” Thomas Leatherbury, the director of the First Amendment Clinic at Southern Methodist University’s school of law, said.
According to advertisements posted by organizers, the event would have featured remarks from Abel Garcia, a man who began to transition socially and physically before detransitioning. Garcia has since been an outspoken critic of gender affirming care, which he described in a tweet as when doctors “butcher people who are in need of mental help.”
Texas is one of 21 states that ban gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth. Gov. Greg Abbott signed the bill restricting care in June, prompting lawsuits from families and doctors who argued it both took away parental rights and discriminated against transgender kids.
Sharp said she’s had firsthand experience with Turcios’ group’s transphobic views. She referenced LUCA’s protests in October against Galileo Church over forming the North Texas TRANSportation Network, a nonprofit aimed at providing travel grants to families seeking gender affirming care for their children.
The protest featured signs, held by Texas LUCA members, with phrases like “Stop sending kids to get mutilated!”
Peter Steffensen, an adjunct clinical professor of law with the First Amendment Clinic at SMU, said in the instance of a legal challenge to Fort Worth’s restrictions, courts would consider whether the community center counts as a designated public forum.
In designated public forums, governments may impose reasonable restrictions on time, place and manner, but restrictions based on speech content or viewpoint are presumed unconstitutional. Leatherbury said in order to get past that presumption, a government body has to show a substantial and compelling state interest in restricting speech.
“And so you might find that the government’s interest in not furthering discrimination is a substantial or compelling interest,” Leatherbury said. “But then you have to look at the means the government is using to shut down speech and whether or not that is narrowly tailored.”
One of the sole exceptions to content-based restrictions, Steffenson said, is speech that incites violence. Telles said due to the public nature of the event, safety and security became a consideration.
Rev. Katie Hays, founder and pastor of Galileo Church, said although she disagrees “vehemently” with the context of the event, she understands it can be seen as a form of free speech. But if the event were to deliberately incite violence against transgender people, Hays said, that would be a different matter.
“When LUCA protested at our church, I’m not saying they shouldn’t protest, I just wish they wouldn’t stir up such vitriol on social media that some unhinged person (would) take as an incitement to do violence,” Hays said.
Turcios said his group wasn’t doing anything criminal by setting up the event, and that he would have welcomed different viewpoints in the Q&A portion of the event.
“And if someone else wants to create an event, saying that they support transgenderism, they’re welcome to do that,” he said.
After the city canceled the community center reservation, local conservative groups were quick to react on social media. Bo French, chair of the Tarrant County Republican Party, said a “reckoning” is coming to Fort Worth in 2025, and referenced next year’s City Council elections.
Derrick Wilson, chairman of the Texas Young Republican Federation, said the cancellation was an unacceptable violation of First Amendment rights, and that he hoped the city would reverse course quickly.
After Sharp first found out about the event, she decided to call the community center and ask about booking space for an event herself. After they gave her information about booking, she told them the event would be about how Christians shouldn’t exist anymore, and asked if that would be OK.
“They told me no, that goes against our policy. So, I asked why they were hosting the group on Saturday, and she said they were still working on it,” she said.
That shows if there are speech restrictions, it’s not only conservatives experiencing them, she said. Ultimately, she’s happy that the city decided to cancel the event, and feels that it shows they’re treating all of their citizens equally.
“Defending, protecting all of us equally, that’s what our taxes go for,” she said. “And that’s what they’re doing and we appreciate it. It makes us feel safer and more welcome in the city.”
Turcios announced Friday afternoon that the event would be hosted at the campaign office of U.S. District 12 candidate John O’Shea, a Republican challenging fellow candidate Craig Goldman in the May runoff election.
Editors note: This story has been updated with information about the event’s new location.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.