Gay Couple Suing Vistaprint After Receiving 'Hateful' Satan Pamphlets Instead Of Wedding Programs
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BUTLER, Pa. (KDKA) -- Shortly before Stephen Heasley, of Butler County, married Andrew Borg, of Australia, on a family farm in Cowansville last September, they sent a copy of a wedding program to Vistaprint for 100 copies for their wedding.
"They spent a significant amount of time creating and designing a customized wedding program that had a lot of very special meaning to them," the couple's New York attorney, Michael Willemin, told KDKA money editor Jon Delano on Wednesday.
Vistaprint is an international online printing service whose wedding website promises "a gorgeous look at a great value," but that's hardly what the couple got.
"The night before their wedding they opened up the package they received from Vistaprint. Inside the package, instead of their customized wedding programs, were discriminatory and hateful, anti-gay pamphlets, discussing resisting the temptation of Satan and the evils of the flesh," recounted Willemin.
Willemin said the couple, now living in Australia, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against Massachusetts-based Vistaprint.
"Vistaprint didn't just choose not to serve our clients because they were gay. As abhorrent as that is, what they did, ultimately, in this case is one step worse. They took the opportunity to attack our clients," Willemin said.
Vistaprint has not responded directly but issued a statement via a spokesperson to the NY Post saying:
"Vistaprint would never discriminate against customers for their sexual orientation. We pride ourselves on being a company that celebrates diversity and enables customers all over the world to customize products for their special events."
"We have just been made aware of this incident in the last few hours. We understand how upsetting it would be for anyone to receive materials such as these the night before their wedding and we have immediately launched an internal investigation."
The couple is seeking both financial compensation and an injunction to stop this kind of behavior.
