A gay couple is suing Vistaprint after receiving what they say were hateful anti-gay pamphlets instead of the wedding programs that they ordered.
Shortly before Stephen Heasley, of Butler County, married Andrew Borg, of Australia, on a family farm in Armstrong County last year, they sent a copy of a wedding program to Vistaprint, which is an international online printing service. They ordered 100 copies of their program to be shipped to a Butler County address for their upcoming wedding.
However, according a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday, they did not receive their programs. Instead, inside the package they received from Vistaprint, according to the suit, were hateful, discriminatory and anti-gay messages, equating their relationship to Satan’s temptation.
The couple is now living in Australia and filed a lawsuit against Massachusetts-based Vistaprint, seeking financial compensation and an injunction to stop this kind of behavior.
The suit alleges that although gay couples have a constitutional right to marry, the assault on the rights of gay people who choose to get married carries on.
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Vistaprint says the company would never discriminate against their customers for their sexual orientation and has learned the pamphlets were sent by mistake.
According to the Associated Press, the printing company says the pamphlets received by a gay couple were incorrectly sent to them by a third-party partner and were intended for another customer. The company says it will take “strong action” if it finds that any individual played a deliberate role in the mix up.
Vistaprint is accused of sending discriminatory pamphlets to a gay couple who ordered wedding programs. The pamphlets included messages about temptation and sin, according to the lawsuit.
A partially blacked out version of the wedding program same-sex couple Stephen Heasley and Andrew Borg were supposed to receive from Vistaprint, according to a federal lawsuit.
Photo Courtesy: Wigdor LLP via NBC News
A religious pamphlet allegedly sent to same-sex couple Stephen Heasley and Andrew Borg by Vistaprint, according to a federal lawsuit.
PHoto Courtesy: Wigdor LLP via NBC News
