Seyi Omooba axed from the theatrical tour of the Curve and Birmingham Hippodrome production of The Color Purple after “homophobic” Facebook post surfaces.
Actor Seyi Omooba has been dropped from the production of The Color Purple after a Facebook post from 2014 in which she said that she did “not believe homosexuality is right” went viral on social media.
The Facebook post from 2014 went viral when actor Aaron Lee shared a screenshot on Twitter saying Omooba owed an explanation to the gay community for her words.
@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 (he/him) 🍉 (@aleelambert) March 15, 2019
In the post, Omooba said that she does not believe people “can be born gay”.
She added, “I do not believe homosexuality is right, though the law of this land has made it legal doesn’t mean its [sic] right.”
Curve and Birmingham Hippodrome said that Omooba “will no longer be involved with the production” after admitting that the post had “caused significant and widely expressed concerns”.
The statement reads,
“On Friday 15 March a social media post dating from 2014, which was written by the The Color Purple cast member Seyi Omooba, was re-posted on Twitter. The comments made by Seyi in that post have caused significant and widely expressed concerns both on social media and in the wider press.
“Following careful reflection it has been decided that Seyi will no longer be involved with the production. This decision was supported by the Authors and Theatrical Rights Worldwide.
“The audition process, as ever, was conducted professionally and rigorously, led by an exceptional casting director with actors who are evaluated on what they present in the audition room. We do not operate a social media screening process in the casting of actors”.
