FORT WORTH, Texas — Fort Worth police plan to be on site to monitor protests and an event celebrating a Christian Nationalist group that is scheduled to be held at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden Saturday.
The True Texas Project, which is listed as an anti-government group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, is hosting a conference marking its 15th anniversary starting Friday night.
The event includes lectures on a so-called "War on white America" and a conspiracy theory that white people are being replaced by immigrants -- rhetoric that has inspired mass shootings, including a massacre at an El Paso Walmart, the SPLC said.
Kyle Rittenhouse, who was acquitted for the killing of two men during Black Lives Matter protests in Wisconsin, will lead one session at the event.
"This is dangerous rhetoric that is being spewed at a place of education and beauty in Fort Worth," said Amy Ramsey, the chief operating officer of activist group Defense of Democracy and one of the organizers of the Saturday protest. "I don't like seeing hate in my city."
The organizers of the True Texas Project did not reply to multiple interview requests Friday. In a video posted to Facebook, the group's founder and president said the conference is sold out.
The Botanic Garden as a venue for the conference inspired controversy over the past several months. The organization that runs the garden initially canceled the reservation.
The city of Fort Worth, however, required the reservation to go forward because it said city-owned facility "cannot restrict access based solely on a potential renter's viewpoint."
A spokesperson for the Botanic Garden said Friday the organization does not endorse any specific viewpoint of groups that rent its space.
Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker declined to comment on the event, a spokesperson said. However she was not invited to the conference -- which boasted local political leaders would be among the attendees -- and would not attend if she were asked, the spokesperson said.
City staff are set to present a review of the rental policies for city-owned facilities at a City Council meeting in August, at which point Parker will weigh in, the spokesperson said.
A group called the Houston United Front Against Fascism said its members would travel to Fort Worth to protest the conference Saturday. In a statement, it said some of its protestors will be armed.
"This may make some uncomfortable," a spokesperson wrote. "However to those, I would like to ask the question: If not now, then when? Fascism does not care about decency, etiquette, or grand moral gestures."
Ramsey said her protest group would not carry weapons -- and planned to peacefully, but loudly, make their presence known.
"I’m holding up a sign, I’m standing in the shade and I’m going to be saying that hate is not welcome in Fort Worth, Texas," she said.
A spokesperson for the Fort Worth Police Department said several officers will be working both inside the Botanic Garden and will be monitoring activities outside the venue.
"We do not share too much regarding tactics or other police activity, but it is safe to say that we are aware and monitoring accordingly," the spokesperson said.
The conference has reserved certain rooms inside the building where visitors purchase tickets, but the Botanic Garden will be open to the public as normal Saturday, a spokesperson said.