Houston, TX – Houston will begin offering health and life insurance to legally married same-sex spouses of municipal employees, Mary Annise Parker announced last week. Parker says it is the constitutional thing to do, according to the Houston Chronicle.

“Based on the right to equal protection under the law, it is unconstitutional for the city to continue to deny benefits to the same-sex spouses of our employees who are legally married,” Parker said. “This change is not only the legal thing to do, it is the right thing, just and fair thing to do.”

Parker said she believes Texas’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage violates the U.S. Constitution.

“The amendment specifically permits benefits to be provided to legal spouses of employees,” she said. “I can only assume that it was contemplated that there would never be a time when same-sex couples were in legally sanctioned relationships.”