EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been updated with new information. Kirk Cameron and Riley Gaines will not visit other area libraries.
A celebrity will visit Taylor this weekend, but he may experience more than he planned due to the recent culture wars in Eastern Williamson County.
See You at the Library will be held at 2 p.m Saturday, Aug. 5 in the meeting room at the Taylor Public Library, 801 Vance Street. Former 90s TV star and evangelical Christian activist Kirk Cameron and Riley Gaines, an American former competitive swimmer, who made headlines for speaking out against transgender females competing in women’s sports, will be on hand to pray, sing and read passages from BRAVE books to the consternation of area supporters of LGBTQ+ rights.
“I am very grateful that Kirk Cameron, as well as Riley Gaines, are coming to the Taylor Public Library,” said Jeff Ripple, a Taylor Area Ministerial Alliance member and pastor at Christ Fellowship Church. “It is very important to bring awareness to the potential influence the materials in our libraries has on patrons, especially our children. We need to make sure the materials in our library are not doing harm in the development of our children.”
The event is hosted by Williamson County Citizens Defending Freedom. Local hosts are Annette Maruska, Allison Tangeman, Pat Werner and Michael Prillaman.
Ripple and other local Christians are praising the event.
“Libraries should be a place of safe learning and imagination for children, not a mine field of pornography danger” Ripple said. “Kirk Cameron coming to Taylor will help bring needed awareness of these problems that have laid hidden until recently.”
Similar events will be held at the Hutto and Round Rock Public Libraries, and the group United Against Book Bans is asking people to attend the events to show their opposition. Cameron is not expected to attend additional events.
“We are asking people to attend as many of the three events as possible and to wear family- friendly, pride and/or secularist-related probook t-shirts,” according to the group.
However, not everyone is anticipating Cameron’s visit in a supportive manner.
“Kirk Cameron is an anti LGBTQIA+ creationist and is attempting to garner attention for his Brave Books tour,” said Taylor resident Jose Orta. “He is coming to Taylor to sell his product under the guise that our library is attempting to silence him. That is far from the case.”
Orta said Taylor is full of diversity, and it should all be respected.
“Public libraries are the heart of the community, and it is opened to everyone, which means it tells all of our stories,” he said. “And we must ensure that we protect our libraries from any and all types of censorship.”
