Gay Couple Sues Vistaprint For 'Anti-Gay' Flyers Before Wedding

WALTHAM, MA — Vistaprint is apologizing to a gay couple who is suing the printing giant after the couple found religious literature they felt targeted them for being gay in place of wedding programs they ordered.

The lawsuit comes after the couple found about 80 pamphlets that included phrases warning of "the temptations of the flesh" instead of the 100 programs they had ordered from the company this past September.

"This conduct is morally repugnant and Vistaprint must be held accountable," reads the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts.

Vistaprint apologized Wednesday night.

"We share in this couple’s outrage," CEO Robert Keane said in a statement. "Vistaprint in no way condones – and does not tolerate – discrimination against any of our customers based on their race, religion, gender or sexual orientation."

What happened?

On September 22, the night before their wedding, Stephen Heasley and Andrew Borg opened the box that was supposed to contain 100 wedding programs they'd spent weeks designing and had ordered from Vistaprint. The lyrics to the song they were to walk into the ceremony, “Treasure,” by Above and Beyond were supposed to be on the back of the program, something they were excited about.

What they found inside the box was not treasure: Instead, they say they found 80 pamphlets implying that gay marriage was wrong and targeting them as a gay couple, according to the lawsuit.

“The World – Satan is using the world to entice mankind. He is trying to lead the world to destroy everything Godly," reads one of the sentences on the pamphlet.

Although the words "gay" or "homosexual" do not appear in the literature, the men's attorney told Patch "the message is quite clear.

"'Resisting the temptations of the flesh,' in the context of a gay wedding certainly would have a very anti-gay message," Michael J. Willemin said.

Heasley, 31, and Borg, 39, live in Australia but were getting married in Pennsylvania. They had spent $79.49 on the programs. They were "horrified" and had to scramble to print their own programs in time for the wedding, the lawsuit said.

"It really put a lot of stress, fear, anxiety and really hurt and pain into what should have been the best day of their lives," said Willemin.

After the wedding, rather than complaining to Vistaprint, the couple decided they wanted to broadcast a message to the company and other companies with discriminatory practices, their attorney told Patch.

"Mostly they want to be a part of hopefully driving change," said Willemin. "This isn't the only instance where a customer of a company has received different treatment because he or she is gay. They wanted to let the world know this is happening and it's wrong."

The goal of the lawsuit, he said, is to send a message to other companies that this can't continue, and also ensure Vistaprint takes steps to make sure this type of thing doesn't happen again. The couple also plans to sue for damages in jury trial.

Willemin said this case is particularly egregious, because unlike some of the other cases involving a refusal to serve an individual because he or she is gay, there's an agreement to provide clients with something.

"And rather than saying 'we won't serve you,' someone took an act affirmatively attacking our clients for being gay."

What did Vistaprint say?

Vistaprint did not return multiple Patch requests for comment. However, a spokeswoman for Vistaprint told the Boston Herald the company was notified about the incident Monday and that it “immediately launched an internal investigation.”

"Vistaprint would never discriminate against customers for their sexual orientation," Sara Nash said. "We pride ourselves on being a company that celebrates diversity and enables customers all over the world to customize products for their special events."

The company said in their Wednesday release that they were taking steps in response to the incident and had reached out to apologize to the couple. (See the rest of their statement below in full)

The Waltham-based Vistaprint is a printing company that produces products that can be customized, everything from wedding programs to business cards to signs to promotional products.

The online statement from Vistaprint:

We support diversity and reject discrimination in all forms. Our CEO and founder’s letter in response to a recent incident

To our customers and partners worldwide –
Yesterday, we learned that a same sex couple who were married in Pennsylvania in September of last year ordered 100 custom wedding programs from Vistaprint and instead, received pamphlets expressing intolerance and judgment.
We want to say how incredibly saddened we are to hear this story. To know that any person could be treated in such a way especially during a time that should be filled with joy is extremely disheartening. Imagine a customer who took the time to create something personal to mark this special day and instead, the day before their wedding, goes to open their wedding programs and finds these judgmental messages. We have never been more disappointed to let a customer down.
We share in this couple’s outrage. Vistaprint in no way condones – and does not tolerate – discrimination against any of our customers based on their race, religion, gender or sexual orientation. We have encouraged members of the LGBTQ community to use our services to help celebrate their life events for many years, and have published thousands of wedding invitations, programs and other content for same sex couples.
As an organization, we support diversity and reject discrimination in all forms. We have taken the following steps in response to this incident:

• We have begun a complete investigation to determine how and why the couple received these materials. If we determine that any Vistaprint employee or partner had any role in this situation, we will take strong action.
• We have communicated with all Vistaprint team members and reaffirmed our commitment to equality and diversity for all of our customers and employees.
• We have begun to plan how we can use our global brand platform to share a message of support for same sex marriage and equality around the world.

We have reached out to the couple to express our outrage that this incident occurred, and sadness that this in any way diminished the joy of their wedding day memories. We are hoping to establish a dialogue with them so together we can use this incident as an opportunity to shine a light on important LGBTQ issues.
Sincerely,
Trynka Shineman, CEO, Vistaprint
Robert Keane, CEO, Cimpress and Vistaprint’s founder

Images up top screen grabs of Mass Court Documents.