Ingo Rademacher was fired from ABC’s General Hospital earlier this year.
The star was let go from the medical after refusing to follow the mandate that cast members be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Rademacher is now suing ABC, according to Variety.
The outlet states that the actor had tried to get a religious exemption to continue on the show, but the network declined the request.
According to Variety, Rademacher shared an email he sent to Disney’s HR department in October.
It reads as follows:
I am entitled to a religious exemption against mandatory vaccination for COVID-19 on the basis of my deeply and sincerely held moral belief that my body is endowed by my creator with natural processes to protect me and that its natural integrity cannot ethically be violated by the administration of artificially created copies of genetic material, foreign to nature and experimental.
Rademacher says that his right to privacy is violated due to the vaccine mandate.
“This should not be a political issue,” according to the suit.
“There is no need for everybody to get the COVID-19 shot, even if the president demands it.”
Rademacher’s firing from the series came after he shared controversial sentiments regarding vaccine mandates on social media.
He also caught heat in advance of his official firing for sharing a screen-grabbed tweet that misgendered a trans woman.
The same tweet also called the person a member of “ClownTown.”
The post drew criticism from fellow General Hospital stars Cassandra James, a transgender woman, and Nancy Lee Grahn.
“I am aware of a transphobic post shared by a fellow General Hospital actor. Shame on you,” James wrote on Twitter.
“You have some serious unlearning and education to do. I feel deeply disappointed that such a public display of ignorance could come from our GH family.”
“Misgendering trans folks is violence and if you come for one of us, you come for all of us,” James added.
“The cis world doesn’t get to decide which of us is valuable. I am so proud of the fans for always holding us to a high standard, for calling out transphobia and violence,” James continued.
Grahn responded to James’ tweet, writing that Rademacher “is mercifully no longer a part of the GH cast.”
“Transphobia & misgendering are disgusting & should be unacceptable in any industry, including soaps/acting. I stand with my costar [James] & the trans community.”
“I don’t really think it’s OK to call a trans an ’empowered woman,’ because where does that leave women? Women have fought so hard to get on a level playing field with men…. So I don’t agree with that,” Rademacher said in the aftermath.
The star did apologize for not modifying the shared tweet to omit the misgendering at the center of the meme.
“I do apologize for not crossing out ‘dude’ and putting ‘transgender,’” he said.
“Me, personally, I wouldn’t have written it that way.”
Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.
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