LANSING, MI – Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed legislation which will ban domestic partners of many state employees from receiving health care benefits.

According to the Detroit Free Press, the measure applies to municipal and school employees, and to homosexual and heterosexual couples alike. It was primarily aimed at ending the practice of providing benefits to same-sex couples, which was adopted by a handful of cities, schools and most of the state’s public universities after the adoption of the state’s one-man, one-woman marriage amendment in 2004. Snyder had been under pressure for LGBT rights groups to veto the legislation. A spokesperson for the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, called the statute “mean-spirited and cruel.” A lawsuit on behalf of “‘families’ who will lose their health protections” will be forthcoming.