

Stephen Heasley and Andrew Borg were excited to see the wedding programmes they ordered for their big day.

But when the package arrived, the gay couple was horrified to instead find religious pamphlets with messages about temptation and sin, according to a federal lawsuit against printing company Vistaprint.

The lawsuit, which was filed on Tuesday in Massachusetts, US, accuses Vistaprint of attacking the couple because they're gay by replacing their wedding programme order with the "hateful, discriminatory'' pamphlets.



"Our goal is to hold Vistaprint accountable for the harm they have caused, to give a voice to others who may have been similarly victimised, 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, who got married in Pennsylvania in September, said in a statement.

TWITTER Stephen Heasley and Andrew Borg say they received anti-gay flyers instead of the wedding programmes they ordered from Vistaprint.

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The Dutch company, which has a regional headquarters in Massachusetts, told media outlets that it would never discriminate against its customers and is investigating the incident.

Vistaprint's CEO and founder sent a letter to its customers and partners on Wednesday in response to the lawsuit, saying they are "incredibly saddened" by the incident and have reached out to the couple to express their outrage. The company says it will take "strong action" if it finds that any Vistaprint employee or partner played a role.

Vistaprint says it hopes to use the incident as an "opportunity to shine a light on important LGBTQ issues".

David Gottlieb, an attorney for the couple, said they did not complain to Vistaprint at the time of their wedding because they had to scramble to print their own programmes in time for the ceremony. Gottlieb said they hope that their lawsuit will bring public attention to the issue to ensure others don't receive the same treatment.

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, accuses Vistaprint of discriminating against the couple because they're gay and breaching a contract for not delivering the programmes they ordered.​

According to the lawsuit, the pamphlets received by the couple on the eve of their wedding included phrases such as "fight against Satan's temptation and pursue what is good" and "do not set on the path of the wicked or walk in the way of evildoers".

The couple, who lives in Australia, says the pamphlets were designed to intimidate and threaten them.