First Amendment Showdown at a Fort Worth Pride Event

Talena Reese, Pexels

A Fort Worth street preacher is fighting back after police threatened him with arrest and handed him a citation at a downtown pride festival. The confrontation, caught on video, has spread across the country and reignited a debate over free speech and religious liberty on public sidewalks. Now his legal team says the city crossed a constitutional line.

David Grisham, a longtime evangelist, drew a police warning at Trinity Pride Fest on June 27 while sharing his Christian message. He and fellow preacher Rich Penkoski say officers blocked them from public streets and sidewalks, then warned they could be ticketed if anyone found their words offensive.

A Warning Over “Offensive” Speech

In the widely shared video, an unidentified female officer tells the men that offense alone could bring a ticket. Police set up barricades restricting access to public streets and sidewalks, then moved the preachers farther from the crowd. When Penkoski noted that offensive speech is protected, an officer suggested it could still count as disorderly conduct.

The exchange grew tense as the group pressed for answers. “If someone is offended by your talking, then we have a problem,” the officer said, adding that she would write a ticket if attendees were offended by their speech. For many Christians, that standard turns the First Amendment on its head, letting a listener’s reaction decide whether the Gospel can be preached in public.

Grisham was eventually cited. Officers struggled to explain what made his speech unlawful, at one point suggesting it involved a megaphone held too close to someone, which Penkoski flatly denied. When the preachers asked whether calling a transgender attendee “sir” could draw a ticket, one officer reportedly called it a “gray area,” a phrase that only deepened their concern that the true target was the content of their message.

A Citation Without a Decibel Check

The ticket was issued over noise, though the sources differ on the exact label, ranging from “unreasonable noise” to disorderly conduct tied to noise. Grisham’s attorneys argue the citation cannot stand no matter what it is called. The law firm representing him announced it would challenge the citation and any related enforcement, calling the police response a violation of his constitutional rights.

Attorney CJ Grisham, who says he is no relation to the preacher, called the noise claim indefensible. He noted that the city’s own ordinance requires officers to measure sound with a decibel meter before issuing a ticket, and no such reading was ever taken. He also argued the local ordinance conflicts with Texas law by setting a stricter limit than the state allows.

For the preachers, the citation only confirmed that the warning about offense was the real motive. They see the noise complaint as a convenient excuse to silence a message the crowd did not want to hear.

The City Walks It Back

After the video spread, Fort Worth police reviewed the incident and offered a different account of what happened. A department spokesman said the trouble began when the group used a bullhorn to amplify their voices, and that officers acted only after nearby business owners complained about the noise. Officers said the men were free to keep preaching without the amplification device, which was seized as evidence.

Even so, the department did not fully stand behind its officers. Fort Worth police later admitted an officer made statements that were not accurate, and the city said it would provide First Amendment refresher training for current officers and new trainees. The department added that it is committed to protecting free speech and peaceful assembly while enforcing its ordinances.

That partial admission handed the preachers’ legal team a powerful point. It is hard for a city to defend a citation when its own department concedes that what an officer said on camera was wrong.

Not the First Time

This is not Grisham’s first clash with Fort Worth over the same issue. He told officers he had sued the city back in 2014 after a similar encounter at a pride event, a case that ended in a settlement and an official apology from the city. He argued that Fort Worth was now ignoring the very agreement it once signed.

Penkoski, a military veteran, said the episode shook him. He described his alarm that American police would threaten a Christian preacher with arrest for standing on public property and sharing his faith. To him, punishing speech because it offends someone means free speech no longer exists at all.

Both men frame the fight as bigger than one citation. They believe the outcome will shape whether believers can still carry their message into the public square without fear of a ticket or a jail cell.

Why It Matters

Cases like this are not confined to Fort Worth. Million Voices recently reported on a Houston pastor who was handcuffed and barred from a public bus terminal for sharing his faith, only to win his rights back after legal pressure forced the city to back down.

The heart of the dispute is simple. The Constitution protects speech even when it offends, and courts have long held that a hostile audience cannot be the reason to shut a speaker down. Sidewalks and public squares remain among the most protected places for citizens to speak, pray, and preach.

For people of faith, the freedom to share the Gospel in public is not a privilege granted by city hall but a right given by God and guarded by the First Amendment. Grisham’s challenge now heads toward the courts, where Fort Worth will have to defend a citation its own department has partly disowned. Whatever the result, the case is a reminder that religious liberty is often defended close to home. It plays out not only in the marble halls of Washington, but on the ordinary sidewalks of American cities where the Gospel is still being preached aloud.

As believers, we are called to pray for our leaders and our nation. Pray for wisdom for those making these decisions, and for safety and dignity for all people affected by them.

That’s where we come in.

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