Felix Ngole claims Touchstone Leeds discriminated against him because of his religious beliefs
A Leeds mental health charity withdrew a job offer from a Christian social worker after concerns emerged that his views on homosexuality and same-sex marriage could have serious effects on extremely vulnerable clients, its HR director has told a tribunal.
Mrs Hart told the tribunal this immediately “rang alarm bells” because the role involved dealing with extremely vulnerable people who were being discharged from hospital after mental health problems, many of whom were LGBT. She was asked by Michael Phillips, for Mr Ngole, whether she thought the existence of the online news articles outlining his client’s belief was enough to cause problems even if he never brought the subject up with service-users.
She said: “We have to think of that as well, the impact of somebody seeing these articles who’s very unwell.” In her witness statement, Mrs Hart said: “It really concerned me that our service users who came into direct contact with the claimant might conduct a Google search of the claimant and find the same information that we had become privy to, ie. that the claimant was not supportive of the LGBTQI+ community and their rights.
“That’s why we withdrew the job offer.” Mrs Hart outlined concerns she had during the meeting in July 2022 about how he would work with LGBT service users but also about his engagement with equality training within the organisation, which provides mental health services to 10,000 people across Yorkshire.
In his witness statement Mr Ngole said: “As a Christian, I do not see any conflict in working with and for people from the LGBT community. That said, there is a distinction between respecting and loving the person and yet lovingly and respectfully disagreeing with their views and/or behaviours.”
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