Egged on by religious group Christian Concern, actor Seyi Omooba sued The Curve Theatre in Leicester in 2019 after they fired her for anti-LGBT remarks… and lost. 

We reported on the case back in February about how past comments on Facebook lead to Omooba’s sacking from The Color Purple after her hypocrisy at taking a lesbian role was highlighted by Hamilton actor Aaron Lee Lambert. 

Claiming religious discrimination, her case was taken up by Christian Concern taking up legal arms against UK law that prohibits homophobia in any form, irregardless of using one’s religion as a shield for bigotry.  Omooba’s father is a Nigerian Christian pastor and we don’t need to tell you about the shocking and archaic views they hold against LGBTQ+ people in the African nation of Nigeria.  

In a joint statement, Chris Stafford, chief executive of The Curve and artistic director Nikolai Foster said: “We have always felt the case lacked any merit from the outset, but Seyi Omooba and her legal team continued to disregard our pleadings and chose to take our theatre to court irrespective of the facts.”

The statement went on to detail how the whole case was “used as part of a wider campaign orchestrated by Christian Concern” which meant that there had been “significant human and financial cost”. 

Claims of ‘religious freedom’ as an excuse to harass, attack or discriminate against the LGBTQ+ community will not was in the UK and thankfully once again this has been proven in the courts. It is just a shame that an actor’s career had to come into the firing line because certain religious groups chose to fight a losing battle in her name.