Bearing megaphones, rainbow flags, and the occasional firearm, more than 80 people protested this morning outside the Fort Worth Botanic Garden. Led by the Justice Network of Tarrant County and Defense for Democracy, among other local groups, the protesters marched in objection to True Texas Project, a conservative organization with racist ties holding a convention on the publicly owned property.
“Fort Worth Botanic Garden is a place for everyone in Fort Worth, not just some,” said Amy Ramsey, Defense for Democracy COO. “The people that come here and work here and the people that pay for it with our taxes don’t want it to be a place sullied with white supremacy, conspiracy theories, and antisemitism. [True Texas Project] spews rhetoric that has inspired at least four … mass shootings, and I think that should give everyone a cause to pause and say, ‘Absolutely not, not in Fort Worth.’ ”
As cars continued pulling in through the garden gates, more than a dozen police officers stood near the building entrance. The Botanic Garden and True Texas Project expected a crowd of about 250. One of them was Kathy Johnstone from North Richland Hills. “If [the protesters] want to stand out there in 100-degree weather and scream and shout like little children, that’s up to them. It’s their [prerogative] just as well it’s ours to come to a meeting. This is not what they say it is, and we are God-loving Christians. We are conservatives. We are not out there with guns shooting people. I have a good eye for discernment.”
Katherine Godby from the faith-based Justice Network had a hard time reconciling the lovely garden with the conservatives inside.
“It’s hard to put beauty with hate,” she said. “The True Texas Project doesn’t fit the environment. It spoils it.”
Photos by Juan R. Govea
Rights occur on both sides. One side cannot force anything on the other. However, there can be agreement to disagree and move on. That is the way to do it.