Tonya Parker, an African-American lesbian judge in Texas, refuses to marry straight couples until everyone in the state has the right to marry.

Turning away would-be newlyweds is "my opportunity to give them a lesson about marriage inequality in this state," Parker told a meeting of the Stonewall Democrats of Dallas earlier this week.

She said it's "oxymoronic" for her to perform a ceremony that can't be performed for her.

Instead, she refers couples to other judges in the courthouse with an explanation 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," she told the meeting.

In a statement to the media issued Thursday and quoted on the Dallas-Fort Worth NBC affiliate, Parker said she would never impede anyone from getting married, but said she is not duty-bound to officiate over ceremonies and so chooses not to.

Parker was elected to the bench in 2010. She is the first gay person elected judge in Dallas County and is believed to be the the first openly gay black elected official in the state's history, according to Dallas Voice, a news site for the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community.