The DC Public Library system clearly did not approve of actor Kirk Cameron’s recent visit to read his Christian children’s book.
Mr. Cameron arrived at the Cleveland Park Public Library in northwest Washington to find it adorned with LGBT rainbow flags and a book display featuring dozens of LGBTQ books for children and young people, including pro-transgender titles like Princess Boy and I Am not a girl.”
The library system acknowledged the displays were installed on Tuesday in a deliberate rebuttal by the Christian actor and activist ahead of his Wednesday reading, the final stop on his national library tour, which aimed to offer a conservative alternative to drag queen story hours.
“The public feedback the library received on Twitter and through emails and phone calls indicated that there was a perception that the library supported the views of the groups using the public meeting space,” the library system said in a statement opposite The Washington Times. “The library created the displays to correct this misinterpretation of their core value of welcoming everyone.”
Whether Mr Cameron felt welcome is another question, but he was optimistic after reading his children’s book As You Grow, which was sponsored by publisher Brave Books, an event where other Conservative figures read their recently published children’s books .
These included former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, conservative pundit Jack Posobiec, Brave Books CEO and founder Trent Talbot, and Chaya Raichik, creator of Libs of TikTok.
“We had a lot of family involvement,” Mr. Cameron told Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council, on his show Washington Watch.
“We had a dream team of writers from Brave Books there,” said Mr. Cameron. “These were books, including my book on the fruits of the Spirit and Bible wisdom, to a book about fostering trust between parents and children instead of children keeping secrets from parents, which is what children are now being taught in schools.”
He pointed to Ms. Raichik’s book No More Secrets: The Candy Cavern, which seeks to counter school systems that use a transgender student’s preferred name and pronoun at school, but not in front of parents.
The Cleveland Park Library put up these trans flags and a whole display of bright books in front of the library YESTERDAY.
You come for your children.
The good news is we won’t back down
To the next in NYC pic.twitter.com/C0WdigfxrN
— BRAVE BOOKS (@BraveBooksUS) March 29, 2023
Critics on the left blasted the library system ahead of the event for housing Mr Cameron and the other authors, although the library had little choice as Brave Books had reserved a public space open to all.
“This is not a program sponsored by the library,” the system tweeted last week. “It’s a reservation for a public meeting room. Use of a library meeting room in no way constitutes an endorsement by the DC Public Library.”
ShutdownDC urged supporters to call the library and “tell them Chaya is not welcome here” and accused the speakers of “intending to promote hate”.
Mr. Cameron’s next reading is scheduled for March 31 in Bryant Park in front of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Public Library in New York City.
Source : www.washingtontimes.com