A gay couple are suing a printing company for sending them anti-LGBT, religious pamphlets instead of the wedding programs they ordered.
In a lawsuit filed Thursday in Massachusetts, Stephen Heasley and Andrew Borg said they ordered 100 programs for their Sept. 23, 2017, wedding in Pennsylvania from Vistaprint, for which they paid almost $80.
But when they opened the delivery the day before their wedding, they were horrified to find they'd been sent 80 copies of a pamphlet entitled "Understanding Temptation: Fight the good fight of the faith."
"Mr. Heasley and Mr. Borg were horrified to see these offensive pamphlets, which were clearly sent to intimidate, threaten and harass Plaintiffs because they are gay men," the lawsuit states.
The pamphlets warned that Satan "entices your flesh with evil desires" and warned the readers to "not set foot on the path of the wicked or walk in the way of evildoers."
“The supreme tempter is Satan who uses our weaknesses to lead us into sin. You must understand where temptations come from if you desire to change the way you live," the pamphlet read.
Lawyers for the couple, who live in Australia, said they were "emotionally devastated" by what they said was "intimidating and discriminatory" conduct by the Massachusetts-based company. The men also had to quickly arrange for new programs to be printed.
In a statement on Wednesday, Vistaprint CEO Trynka Shineman and founder Robert Keane said the company does not condone or tolerate discrimination of any kind.
We are extremely saddened by the incident described in recent news articles about Vistaprint. We support diversity… https://t.co/TljOaJBTEV
"We have never been more disappointed to let a customer down," the Vistaprint leaders said.
The company said it was conducting a full investigation to determine how and why the couple were sent the pamphlets.
Vistaprint said the religious materials were printed for one customer but incorrectly sent to the grooms-to-be by a third-party fulfiller.
"We, and our partner, are committed to understanding how and why this happened," the Vistaprint executives said. "If we determine that any individual played a deliberate role in this mix-up, we will take strong action."
The company said it was also reaching out to the couple to apologize and "establish a dialogue" to support marriage equality.
But the couple's attorneys say they are entitled to unspecified damages for the mental distress and anguish they endured.
"This took a great deal of joy out of what should have been the greatest day of our clients’ lives," attorney Michael J. Willemin said. "They want to make sure that this story is told and that people know what happened to them.”
