Actress dropped from Color Purple over homophobic tweets sues for ‘religious discrimination’
Seyi Omooba tweeted she doesn't believe being gay is right
By Steve Brown
Words: Steve Brown
An actress who was dropped from a stage production of The Color Purple is suing for religious discrimination.
Seyi Omooba was cast to star in a stage production of the popular 1982 novel by Alice Walker which follows Celie who is an abuse survivor who learns to be independent after meeting Shug, a woman who she has an intimate and sexual relationship with.
However, Omooba – who was set to star as Celie in the Leicester Curve and Birmingham Hippodrome theatre production – was dropped after Hamilton star Aaron Lee shared a screenshot to Twitter where the actress said she doesn’t believe being gay is right.
@Seyiomooba 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. Immediately. pic.twitter.com/GK2xbzZYgy
— Aaron Lee Lambert (@aleelambert) March 15, 2019
Now, Omooba is reportedly suing the theatre over religious discrimination and is represented by lawyers from the Christian Legal Centre.
In a statement to the Mail on Sunday, Omooba said: “I just quoted what the Bible says about homosexuality, the need for repentance, but ultimately God’s love for all humanity.
“I stand by what I wrote, but had I known that it would have come to this, I would have set my account to the privacy mode.
“I want to make sure no other Christian has to go through something like this.”