By Frank Lovece
McClatchy Newspapers
NEW YORK — Tracey Gold and Alan Thicke, who played Kirk Cameron’s sister and father on the 1980s sitcom “Growing Pains,” have joined the chorus of performers taking exception to their castmate’s anti-gay comments.
Gold, a long-married mom of four, tweeted Sunday, “I am a strong supporter of the #LGBT Community, and I believe in equal rights for all.”
Thicke, after first tweeting Sunday that, “I’ll address kirk’s comments as soon as I recover from rush limbaugh’s,” wrote Monday afternoon that he was “getting (Cameron) some new books. The Old Testament simply can’t be expected to explain everything.”
Cameron, 41 — a born-again Christian who has starred in faith-based movies and co-founded the Bellflower, Calif.-based evangelical ministry The Way of the Master in 2002 — told CNN’s Piers Morgan on Friday that being gay is “detrimental,” “unnatural” and “ultimately destructive to so many of the foundations of civilization.” He said if one of his children were to come out as gay, “I’m going to say, ‘There are all sorts of issues we need to wrestle through in our life. Just because you feel one way doesn’t mean we should act on everything we feel.’”
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) immediately responded, calling Cameron “dated” and “out of step.” And the remarks sent numerous celebrities to Twitter to vent their feelings.
Roseanne Barr wrote on Sunday, “kirk or kurt or whatever cameron is an accomplice to murder with his hate speech.”
Debra Messing, acknowledging Cameron’s right to his beliefs, said, “I can’t be forced to be tolerant of intolerance. I find his words hurtful and ‘destructive’ — but yes; free speech.”
“Modern Family” star Jesse Tyler Ferguson wrote, “The only unnatural thing about me being gay is that I had a crush on Kirk Cameron until about 24 hours ago.”
As for Morgan, TMZ reported that the talk-show host said Cameron was brave for sticking to what he believes, even if most people find his views to be “antiquated.”
