Every month, a Geneva-based conservative group, the Three Headed Eagle Alliance, hosts a guest speaker at Eagle Brook Country Club.

The scheduled speaker announced for Sept. 23, Elmer Stewart Rhodes III, stirred a hornet’s nest of protest on social media, a petition of more than 1,000 signatures and pickets in front of the Geneva country club.

The Three Headed Eagle’s website now states the venue is changed and will be announced closer to the date.

Rhodes, who founded the Oath Keepers, was convicted of seditious conspiracy in the organizing of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol and sentenced to 18 years in prison. The Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti Defamation League describe Oath Keepers as anti-government extremists, many of whom participated in Jan. 6 according to their websites and court records.

President Trump commuted Rhodes’ sentence in January.

Neither the manager at Eagle Brook Country Club, nor its Texas-based parent, Arcis Golf, responded to voicemail and email messages seeking comment. One of the Three Headed Eagle’s leaders responded to an email stating she would provide comment later.

The group We Can Lead Change Fox Valley organized an online “Stop Stewart Rhodes” petition, collecting 1,030 signatures asking Eagle Brook Country Club not to allow Rhodes to be a guest speaker.

The organization posted on its website Sept. 4 that members presented their petition to the general manager of the country club, who they said “informed us that the Rhodes event had been cancelled at their facilities.”

They called the conversation “polite, respectful, and carried out with sincerity and graciousness.”

Some conservatives responded on social media that the Three Headed Eagle is being victimized by “cancel culture” as “a mob trying to intimidate a private business into restricting speech it doesn’t like.”

Geneva resident Paula Merrington said opponents of the choice of speaker also have a free speech right to respond.

“They’re saying we are trying to shut down ‘a lawful event,’” Merrington said. “It’s our right to say we don’t want” Rhodes coming to Geneva.

Merrington is part of the leadership team for Fox Valley Activists and a member of We Can Lead Change Fox Valley – the group that hosted the petition drive.

Elburn resident Jen Hall said she organized about 20 pickets in front of the country club on the fly the afternoon of Sept. 3.

“This was word of mouth,” Hall said. “I first posted it on Facebook and got the ball rolling. ... A woman who showed up (at the picket) heard from a friend in Ohio, who saw it on Reddit and she told me about it. ... This has been shared across the country on different platforms.”

Hall opposes having Rhodes welcomed as a guest speaker for his role on Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol.

“I’m a veteran of the Air Force, my husband is a veteran of the Air Force,” Hall said. “I don’t want to be doing this, but it matters so much to me.”

Hall said she was among those who brought the petition signatures to Eagle Brook Sept. 3 and were told the Sept. 23 event would not take place there.

“I’m waiting for a public statement,” Hall said.

According to his Facebook page, Rhodes became the national spokesman for Condemned USA in February. The organization is a legal defense nonprofit for US political prisoners, according to its website.

Rhodes did not respond to an email sent to the organization seeking comment.

The Three Headed Eagle’s monthly speaker series is called Pints & Politics. Rhodes was to speak about Jan. 6, his prison experience and what he is doing now, according to the website.

“In the aftermath of January 6, 2021, Stewart Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in prison,” the website. “He has spent the last three years behind bars, including one year in solitary confinement, widely viewed by his supporters as a political prisoner due to his outspoken belief that the 2020 election was fraudulent.”

This story has been updated to clarify that Rhodes’ sentence was commuted, not pardoned.