Do we like Kirk Cameron?
Our score: 3 out of 10. His own TV words on gay people and his later library push cost him heavily, and the real charity work only softens it a bit.
Cameron was a teen heartthrob on Growing Pains, the show that made him famous as a kid. He then built a second career in faith-based film and family media, leading the cast of Fireproof in 2008 and later making a children's show with a puppet iguana. That's the arc: from Hollywood sitcom to evangelical culture warrior and kids' TV host.
The moment that defines him for LGBTQ+ people came in March 2012, on CNN with Piers Morgan. He said homosexuality was unnatural and “detrimental, and ultimately destructive to so many of the foundations of civilization”, and said he does not support gay marriage. GLAAD launched a petition against him. He later posted that he wanted to love all people, had gay friends he debated respectfully, and said his views were consistent with scripture.
The harm check doesn't stop in 2012. In late 2022 his publisher Brave Books said about fifty US libraries had turned down or ignored his offer to read a children's book, many of which run drag story hours. Cameron said he was pushing back on “toxic ideas” aimed at kids, and called it a fight for “the battle for the hearts and minds of our children”. Where you land depends on whether you see that as defending faith or as targeting LGBTQ+ inclusion, but it's his own campaign, and it's aimed at us.
In December 2020 he led outdoor Christmas carol gatherings in California as a protest against COVID restrictions. They were mostly maskless and held while Southern California's ICU capacity was reported at 0.5 percent. He said “there is immunity in community, but there is desolation in isolation”, and said he'd hold more. Critics called it reckless for public health, and he framed it as love for neighbours with failing businesses.
Lately he's been making Iggy and Mr. Kirk, a kids' series pitched as a values-based take on Mister Rogers. Great American Media's Pure Flix began streaming it in June 2025. In 2026 he's on podcasts talking up Tennessee, and his own show runs weekly. Nothing in what we read ties him to extremist company; the problem is his own words and library campaign.
The good stuff is real. He founded Camp Firefly, a non-profit camp, and when he starred in Fireproof he worked for free: the church behind the film made a donation to the camp instead of paying him. We found no court rulings against him and no reported allegations of mistreating anyone, which is rarer than it should be in showbiz. That's honestly the whole list from what we could open.