Sacked actress set to appeal tribunal ruling in anti-gay row
A CHRISTIAN actress sacked from her role as a lesbian character in a musical over an allegedly anti-gay Facebook post will appeal against an employment tribunal ruling. Seyi Omooba, 26, brought a case for around £128,000 against a theatre trust and her former agents after being dropped as the lead character in a Birmingham Hippodrome stage production of The Colour Purple in 2019.
Her claims of discrimination, harassment and breach of contract were rejected by the Central London Employment Tribunal panel in February.
In its judgment, the panel dismissed the suggestion her sacking by the Leicester Theatre Trust and talent agency Global Artists was due to discrimination against her religious beliefs.
The Christian Legal Centre, a group supporting Omooba’s claim, confirmed she would appeal against the ruling. Ms Omooba was removed from her role as Celie, who is sometimes portrayed as being in a lesbian relationship, when a Facebook post she wrote in 2014 emerged.
It read: “I do not believe you can be born gay and I do not believe homosexuality is right, though the law of this land has made it legal it doesn’t make it right.”
Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said on Wednesday: “The tribunal ruled that the theatre and agency had acted for commercial reasons rather than because they intended to discriminate.
“The judgment ignores the distinction, well-known in discrimination law, between the discriminatory act and the discriminator’s motives.
“The motives may be entirely benign; but that is no defence.” Ms Williams added: “The tribunal has effectively joined the campaign of ‘cancelling’ Seyi for her Christian beliefs.
“She and we are not intimidated and we have now lodged an appeal.”