Christian actress sacked for anti-gay post offered full pay

Seyi Omooba is suing several parties over her dismissal from the musical

A Christian actress sacked for saying homosexuality was not "right" has been offered the full salary for her role, an employment tribunal has heard.

Seyi Omooba, 26, is suing Leicester Curve Theatre and her former agents for £128,000 after she was dropped from a stage production of The Color Purple.

Lawyers for the theatre said she has been offered her £4,309 contract payment "unconditionally".

She was due to play the lead character Celie, sometimes depicted as a lesbian.

But she was dismissed after 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."

During the virtual hearing of the Central London Employment Tribunal on Wednesday, it was revealed the Curve Theatre had offered Ms Omooba "unconditionally" her full salary for the 2019 production.

She has refused to invoice the theatre trust, and maintains she has suffered extensive career damage for espousing her religious beliefs.

• Sacked actress 'would not have played gay role'

The singer is seeking the £4,309 from the trust, plus another £25,000 for injury to feelings and reputational damage.

Representing the theatre, Tom Coghlin QC said claiming for the £4,309 in a tribunal amounted to an "abuse of process", adding: "The offer remains open, it's still there but you've not engaged at all.

"Instead you've chosen to bring a breach of contract claim.

"It's to misuse a tribunal procedure, isn't it, to bring a claim for money that's always been offered to you?"

Ms Omooba said: "No, because you, they, wanted to get away from the situation.

"In my mind, you just wanted to get away from it. You just wanted to give me money knowing full well they fired me based on my beliefs."

'Didn't read full script'

She is also suing her agents Michael Garrett Associates Ltd (Global Artists) for £98,752 for loss of earnings, future losses, injury to feelings and reputational damage.

On Monday, the tribunal heard how Ms Omooba had previously told her agents she would not play a gay role, and that in the production in question she was "never asked explicitly to play this character as a lesbian".

She also said she did not inform producers about her "red line" as she did not understand the character to be lesbian.

Ms Omooba admitted in the tribunal that she had not read the full script.

Director Steven Spielberg and Whoopi Goldberg, who played Celie, on the set of The Color Purple film

The Color Purple is based on Alice Walker's Pulitzer prize-winning 1982 novel of the same name. It tells the tale of Celie, a poor, young, abused African-American woman in the southern United States in the 1930s.

As the story progresses, she develops a close and sexual relationship with a female blues and jazz singer, named Shug Avery.

Ms Omooba's representative, Pavel Stroilov, said "the best known interpretation" of the character is to be found in Steven Spielberg's later film version.

"In the film the lesbian theme is not present at all - there is one kiss between the female characters which can be interpreted in all sorts of ways," he said.

"It is in no way obvious and was never made clear to the claimant that she was expected to play a lesbian character."

Ms Omooba is being represented by the legal arm of Christian Concern, an organisation co-founded by her father, pastor Ade Omooba MBE.

The group said the case "will expose the mechanisms of censorship at the heart of the theatre industry", adding that "any dissenting views against LGBT ideology, especially Christian beliefs, are currently incompatible with a theatrical career".

Mr Coghlin suggested the damage to Ms Omooba's career was not caused by her sacking, but instead "the views you expressed in your Facebook post".

The tribunal continues.