Gay Dallas Judge Refuses To Perform Marriages As Protest

Tonya Parker, a Dallas County Judge, has taken a political stance saying that she won’t perform marriage ceremonies until gay couples have the same right to wed, reports NBC.

Although Parker has the legal right to perform marriage ceremonies in her court, she told a Stonewall Democrats of Dallas meeting on Feb. 21 that she will refrain from doing so.

“I use it as my opportunity to give them a lesson about marriage inequality in this state because I feel like I have to tell them why I’m turning them away,” Parker said.

“So I usually will offer them something along the lines of, ‘I’m sorry. I don’t perform marriage ceremonies because we are in a state that does not have marriage equality, and until it does, I am not going to partially apply the law to one group of people that doesn’t apply to another group of people.’ And it’s kind of oxymoronic for me to perform ceremonies that can’t be performed for me, so I’m not going to do it.”