A hearing has today begun into claims that a Christian social employee was told to “embrace and promote LGBTQ+ rights” or have a job offer withdrawn.
Felix Ngole, 46, has launched legal proceedings against Touchstone Support in Leeds.
He said he had been offered his “dream job” until Touchstone discovered that he had won a landmark free speech case.
In this previous case, Mr Ngole had been faraway from a social employee training course at Sheffield University in 2015 after quoting from the Bible in a debate on Facebook about same-sex marriage. He eventually won the correct to finish his studies after a successful appeal in 2019.
He claims that at a second interview with Touchstone, he was interrogated about his religious beliefs and told that the job offer could be rescinded unless he could show how he would “embrace and promote homosexual rights”. He further alleges that he was told by Touchstone that as an “inclusive employer”, he posed a risk to the organisation’s popularity.
Leeds Employment Tribunal today began hearing his claims of direct discrimination, harassment, and breaches of the Equality Act 2010.
Ahead of the hearing, Mr Ngole said he had been rendered “unemployable” for being a Christian but that he wouldn’t deny his faith to get a job.
“No one has ever told me that I even have not treated them well in my skilled experience. I even have never been accused of forcing my beliefs on anyone. I even have supported vulnerable individuals from all backgrounds, including LGBT,” he said.
He continued, “They made it seem that 100 per cent of the people I could be helping could be LGBT, and that I needed to pledge allegiance to the LGBT flag and ignore my Christian beliefs.
“It is untenable for employers to be allowed to discriminate against Christian beliefs in this manner and to force individuals to advertise an ideology that goes against their conscience within the workplace.
“There was no mutual respect, and no tolerance and inclusion of me and my beliefs in any way. If we get to the purpose where in the event you don’t rejoice and support LGBT you’ll be able to’t have a job, then every Christian on the market doesn’t have a future. You can study as much as you want, but you won’t have a likelihood.”
Mr Ngole said his experience had been especially shocking because he had come to live within the UK as an asylum seeker after fleeing Cameroon.
“The UK is not any longer the country I heard about all those years ago when fleeing Cameroon. The UK then was a bastion of free speech and expression,” he said.
“I don’t have any alternative but to pursue justice again because if this is occurring to me it’ll be happening to Christians and individuals from all beliefs and backgrounds across the country.”
Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, which is supporting Mr Ngole, said that “viewpoint discrimination is escalating within the UK at an alarming rate” and that anyone who doesn’t rejoice LGBT ideology risks becoming a “non-person”.Â
“Telling an worker that they need to ’embrace and promote’ the LGBT lifestyle as a condition of employment sets a dark and troubling precedent,” she said.Â
“If left unchallenged it will see Christians who manifest their beliefs barred from working within the NHS and other institutions.”
