We Need an International Day Against Heterophobia and Europhobia
Ex-IKEA employee sues company for firing over posting Bible verses on homosexuality
By Eno Adeogun
IKEA is being sued by a former Catholic employee after he was sacked for posting Bible verses on the company’s corporate network that demonstrated his objection to the company’s promotion of “LGBT rights”.
Tomasz K – who worked at an IEKA store in Poland, told state broadcaster TVP Info that he was fired after he refused to delete a comment on the retailer’s intranet.
The company celebrated International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT) in May and put up a post asking employees to attend a pro-LGBT event.
“I was shaken up, I’ve been hired to sell furniture but I’m a Catholic and these aren’t my values,” Tomasz explained.
He replied to the post expressing his traditional biblical views on sexuality and was fired as a result.
In a statement released by IKEA, the company said: “One of our employees published a comment under the article, expressing his opinion in a way that could affect the rights and dignity of LGBT + persons.
“In addition, the employee actually used quotes from the Old Testament about death, blood in the context of what fate should meet homosexual people.”
They added that many fellow employees contacted IKEA human resources about Tomasz’s post.
Tomasz is being helped by lawyers from the conservative legal organization Ordo Iuris Institute. They are argue that his right to express his beliefs in an open forum has been violated.