Seyi Omooba, the actress fired from a UK revival of The Color Purple over homophobic social media posts just suffered a major loss in a UK court. A judicial panel known as the Central London Employment Tribunal ruled against Omooba in a wrongful termination claim.
Omooba had filed the lawsuit following her termination from the Leicester Theatre Trust’s revival of the stage musical version of The Color Purple in 2019. The producers had sacked Omooba following the resurfacing of a Facebook post from 2014 in which she decried LGBTQ people as immoral. The producers felt that casting a homophobic actress as the character of Celie, a lesbian, would not suit the production. The theatre also offered to pay Omooba her full salary, but she refused. The actress then filed suit, claiming that her career had collapsed from the negative backlash. In court, Omooba sought £4,309 from the theatre plus a further £25,000 for damages to her career.
Related: Fired, homophobic ‘Color Purple’ actress sues; claims she’d never play a gay character
The BBC reports that a judicial tribunal found Omooba’s case unconvincing, and on February 17 rejected her claims of discrimination, harassment and breach of contract.
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“In the view of the tribunal,” the court wrote in its opinion, “Mr. Stafford [Chris Stafford, chief executive of Leicester Theatre Trust] did not have the purpose of violating the claimant’s dignity or creating an intimidating or humiliating environment for her. His purpose was to save the production.”
“There is no financial loss because she would not have played the part,” the court said. “There is no loss of opportunity to enhance her reputation by performing, because she would not have played the part. If there is damage to her reputation, it was not caused by being dropped from the production but by an unconnected person’s tweeting… of her Facebook post and the outcry resulting from that.”
Attorneys for Omooba expressed their disappointment for the ruling, but have not ruled out options for appeal.
In her original Facebook post–later circulated on Twitter by actor Aaron Lee Lambert–Omooba expressed her disapproval of homosexuality, writing: “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 doesn’t mean its right.” Following the controversy over her firing, it also came to light that her father, pastor Adegboyega Omooba, advocates for gay conversion therapy.
@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
Based on the novel by Alice Walker, The Color Purple debuted on Broadway in 2005, and would run for three years. The show also received 11 Tony Award nominations, winning one. A 2015 Broadway revival of the show won two Tony Awards in 2015, including Best Revival of a Musical and Best Actress for future Oscar-nominee Cynthia Erivo.
Chrisk
Good luck ya dumb c*nt. Maybe Kirk Cameron will hire you. Ha.
Low Country Boy
No, Kirk Cameron and his ilk only hire *white* homophobes.
Gigi Gee
Anti-gay bigots don’t like being held accountable for the anti-gay hate that they spew.
Also, how can you support conversion therapy if you don’t believe people are born gay?
linedrive
Yes. This. What are they converting from? These same people will speculate that so-and-so might be gay and in the same breath say gay isn’t something you are.
Essie
It will be a pleasure never to see or hear about this person ever again. No one in the entertainment industry should hire her. She is toxic and I cannot imagine any sane actor wanting to be associated with her. She can spend the rest of her life watching all of the Black actors getting work on TV, movies, etc. and she not even being able to get a bit part. I doubt she will pause to think about how she got to where she is but that is no one’s fault but hers.
gregg2010
Um, so, homosexuality is wrong, but she’ll play a lesbian for pay. How hypocritical is that? It’s much like Kelsey Grammar condemning homosexuality as he played one of the leads in “La Cage aux Folles” on Broadway.
James
Moron.
Gerard David Jr
It amazes me that some people think you can’t be born gay but you can be born black white brown all different shades but sexuality is only one shade I guess? I wouldn’t want to be going black but you don’t hear me saying all black people must die or it’s not right. People are born it all shape sizes and color and sexuality so get used to it get over it I’ve been gay since I was five and the people that can’t get over to just keep them out shut because being black is no prize either. just because you’re a Christian you’re not going to rule over me cuz I don’t believe in any faith it’s just a business scam looking Jerry farwell Jr against homosexuality but meanwhile boy for the last seven years to give him b******* and then says this is his wife’s boyfriend really? The church is just another hypocritical organization and nothing but trouble look at all the wars that stop because of religion would be better off without it. But anyway that black girl in my opinion is ugly what the hell is she doing acting I’ve never heard of it before so I’m glad I’m going white and gay because I would never want to be black I killed myself.
Ronbo
Actual Christians follow Jesus and say what he said about GLBTQ individuals… absolutely nothing. The haters are just trying to hide their bigotry behind Christianity.
Kangol2
@GerardDavidJr, your comments are verging on racist, so really, perhaps rethink what you’re saying. The answer to anti-gay, anti-LGBTQ and homophobic behavior is not to turn to racism, but to call out the bias and prejudice. Also, you erase people who are Black AND LGBTQ. Being Black and being LGBTQ are two different things, but people who fall in either category or both are subject to prejudice, violence, and worse. Homophobia, racism and misogyny for that matter are the problem, and should be addressed without resort to some other form of hate.
Vincent22
I’m not sure I understand your broken English, but are you saying you’d kill yourself if you were born Black? So you view something different than you with such hatred that’d you’d kill yourself if it were you? Do you not see how hypocritical that is? In any event you’re actually worse than she is. There’s no question to whether you are born black, where as someone who isn’t gay may genuinely think it is a choice.
jjose712
Of course her career collapsed.
She is an homophobe trying to have a career on musical theatre, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that won’t end well for her.
And you need to be very hipocrite to play a very known lesbian character being a vocal homophobe. She got what she deserved
Openminded
Kudo’s to the judge in this case and also to the director of the theatre who originally offered to pay Omooba for acting the part without doing the work. I believe that showed more than a willingness to more than fairly correct the error of hiring her in the first place. I assume Omooba gets nothing now that she sued for more.
I guess this shines light on a new twist in the ongoing debate of straight people playing gays and vice versa in the entertainment business.
cuteguy
Too bad Faux News is unable to be shown in Great Britain since it’s not really News. Otherwise this c*nt rag would have an incredible career with them. Oh wait, she’s not white or blonde or hot so maybe not
LumpyPillows
Said she would never do a gay role. She got exactly what she wanted.
Cam
Suing for lost money after saying she wouldn’t have played the role anyway. Brilliant.
charette8596
She should have just taken the offered money and shut up. By suing she just brought attention to her toxicity and has in reality cancelled herself. Looks good on her.