Lawsuit: Vistaprint sent gay couple Satan pamphlets instead of wedding programs

A gay couple was excited to open a package containing their wedding programs the day before their Pennsylvania ceremony in September.

Excitement soon turned to shock when the couple found 80 copies of a religious pamphlet “with hateful, discriminatory and anti-gay messages” instead of the 100 blue and gold programs they ordered from Vistaprint.

Now, Stephen Heasley and Andrew Borg said they're suing the printing company to hold them accountable.

What happened?

Heasley, 39, and Borg, 31, spent weeks customizing a wedding program that “captured their love for each other,” according to a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in Massachusetts.

The couple, who live in Australia, paid Vistaprint $79.49 for programs that included lyrics from a song the couple heard live on the day they were engaged. 

Instead, they received pamphlets “equating their relationship to Satan’s temptation,” according to the lawsuit.

The booklets were called “Understanding Temptation” from a campaign called Battle Ready.

“The pamphlets — plainly sent to threaten and attack Mr. Heasley and Mr. Borg because they are gay — warn, that ‘Satan entices your flesh with evil desires,’ ” the suit says.

Heasley and Borg scrambled to print their own programs at an additional cost before their nuptials in Butler County, Pennsylvania, the lawsuit adds.

'To give a voice to others ...'

The couple is suing Vistaprint for discrimination based on sexual orientation and breaching a contract for not delivering the programs.

“This took a great deal of joy out of what should have been the greatest day of our clients’ lives,” the couple's lawyers, Michael Willemin and David Gottlieb of the law firm Wigdor LLP, said in a statement Wednesday.

Heasley and Borg seek unspecified damages for the “economic damages, mental anguish and emotional distress” they suffered, according to the suit.

The newlyweds also hope the case will bring attention to the issue.

"Our goal is to ... give a voice to others who may have been similarly victimized, to help prevent this from happening to someone else and to send a message that there will be consequences for acts of hate perpetrated against others," the couple said in a statement.

Vistaprint apologizes, investigates

The Dutch company, which runs its North American operations out of Massachusetts, said it was "extremely saddened" by the incident.

“To know that any customer could feel treated in such a way, especially during a time that should be filled with joy, is extremely disheartening,” CEO Trynka Shineman and founder Robert Keane said in a letter to customers Wednesday.

Officials announced they are opening an investigation into the matter.

"What we have learned to date is that materials that were intended to be printed for one customer were incorrectly sent to this couple by a 3rd party fulfiller," the executives said.

Vistaprint said it reached out to the couple and hopes to use the matter as an opportunity to “shine a light on important LGBTQ issues.”

The incident comes on the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court hearing a case in which a Colorado baker refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

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