‘This is Blatant’: Sign Language Interpreter Alleges He Was Fired Because He’s White

A sign language interpreter who was booted from his Broadway gig with the production “The Lion King” is suing, claiming he was fired because he is white.

Keith Wann, 53, said he and one other person were forced off the production by the Theatre Development Fund, which provides American Sign Language interpreters.

Wann filed a federal discrimination lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against the organization and Lisa Carling, its director of its accessibility programs.

Wann shared a copy of the lawsuit and emails concerning the issue with the New York Post.

In the documentation, the group is shown saying it was “no longer appropriate to have white interpreters represent black characters for ASL Broadway shows.”

Wann said he and Christina Mosleh were told to go away so they could be replaced by black sign-language experts, according to the suit and emails obtained by the Post.

In one communication, Carling cited “the current social climate.”

“With great embarrassment and apologies, I’m asking you both to please back out of interpreting the show for us on Sunday, April 24,” Carling wrote. “I don’t see any other way out of this. It seems like the best solution.”

Shelly Guy, the director of ASL for “The Lion King,” had told Carling to ditch the white interpreters, the Post wrote, citing emails and the lawsuit.

“The majority of the characters in the Lion King are black actors and the content takes place in Africa,” Guy wrote Carling on April 1.

“Keith Wann, though an amazing ASL performer, is not a black person and therefore should not be representing Lion King,” she wrote.