Color Purple star was sacked for homophobic comments

BRITISH actress Seyi Omooba, 25, daughter of homophobic pastor Ade Omooba, co-founder of anti-gay hate group Christian Concern, was delighted to land the role of a LESBIAN character, Celie, in the a play written by BISEXUAL Alice Walker.

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But when it was revealed by another British actor that Ms Omooba, above, had posted an anti-gay rant on social media in 2014, she lost her lead role in a stage production of The Color Purple earlier this year.

In March she auditioned for a production of the musical to be staged in Birmingham and Leicester and “was ecstatic” to be given the part of Celie, the central character in Alice Walker’s novel who was played by Whoopi Goldberg in the 1985 film.

In a discussion about homosexuality, she had written:

It is clearly evident in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 what the Bible says on this matter. I do not believe you can be born gay and I do not believe homosexuality is right …

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The sender of a tweet that exposed her homophobia was actor and writer Aaron Lee Lambert, above, who stars in the West End production of Hamilton the Musical.

He particularly objected to her views because the character of Celie is widely regarded as gay.

According to the BBC, Lambert asked Omooba:

Do you still stand by this post? Or are you happy to remain a hypocrite? Seeing as you’ve now been announced to be playing an LGBTQ character, I think you owe your LGBTQ peers an explanation.

Omooba said in a YouTube video:

On all my social media I always post stuff about God or scripture. They knew that I was Christian and they knew my stance on marriage, on my faith, on God … on many different things that are in the Bible.

At the time of her sacking the show’s producers wrote in a statement:

Following careful reflection it has been decided that Seyi will no longer be involved with the production.

Omooba is now taking legal action against Curve and her agency, Global Artists, for breach of contract and anti-Christian discrimination.

Curve Theatre’s Chief Executive Chris Stafford and Artistic Drector Nikolai Foster told the BBC that they stand by the statement but they had “not received any notice of legal action”.

Cue Christian Concern which has swooped in to support her legal case.

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Andrea Minichiello Williams, above, Chief Executive of the Christian Concern, said:

What happened to Seyi Omooba was cruel and has damaged the career of a highly talented young artist for a Facebook post she had made four years ago.

Here you have a young Christian woman, with what critics have described as having a ‘ferocious’ talent, being sacked and blacklisted for expressing what the Bible says about homosexual practice, the need for forgiveness and God’s love for all humanity.

This is another in a string of cases involving Christians being hounded out of their careers because they love Jesus. This cannot go unchallenged and we are determined to fight for justice in this case.

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Christian Concern loses far more cases than it wins, and this week it was reported that it had lost another. In this instance the case centred on the sacking of transphobic doctor David Mackereth, above.