HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — About a dozen clergy from Connecticut and Massachusetts announced that they will refuse to sign marriage licenses for heterosexual couples until unions between same-sex couples are legally recognized.

Rev. Kathleen McTigue, senior minister at the Unitarian Society of New Haven, located in Hamden, helped to spearhead the effort. McTigue, who performs marriage ceremonies for both straight and gay couples, said it has long troubled her that she can sign a marriage license for one couple but not for the other.

“I feel like in the 17 years of my ministry, when I have officiated for marriages, I’m participating in a bias, an inequity that is built into the legal system,” McTigue said. “The only way I know to stop participating in the bias is to stop participating in the legal dimension of it.”

The clergy involved in this protest include Unitarian Universalists, a Presbyterian minister, a Jewish rabbi, and ministers from the United Church of Christ. A special vespers service was held in Hamden to recognize same-sex relationships and announce the group’s decision to refuse to sign marriage licenses.

McTigue said they will still officiate at wedding ceremonies for heterosexual couples but will leave the signing of the legal document to a justice of the peace.

“This is a solution to a dilemma that has disturbed me the whole time I’ve been an ordained minister,” she said.

Brian Brown, executive director of the Family Institute of Connecticut, said he believes a small minority of churches in Connecticut are supportive of same-sex marriage. He said the overwhelming number of churches believe marriage should only exist between a man and a woman.

“It is oftentimes overlooked how small it is,” Brown said of the support for same-sex marriage.

Earlier this month, a Quinnipiac University Poll found 44 percent of residents support marriage for same-gendered couples while 50 percent said they opposed it.

Support for civil unions — a system that provides gay and lesbian couples with many rights of married couples — was stronger. About 51 percent supported it while 43 percent did not. The telephone poll of 1,519 voters had a 2.5 percentage point margin of error.

The issue is expected to come up when the Legislature returns to the Capitol for the regular session in February. By that time, supporters and opponents expect to learn how the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court will rule on a lawsuit that seeks legal status for same-sex marriages.

Brown said his group has collected more than 80,000 signatures from state residents who want the state legislature to pass a so-called Defense of Marriage Act that would spell out that marriage is only recognized between a man and woman in Connecticut.

Brown’s group believes civil unions or allowing gays and lesbians to marry will harm the institution of marriage and force churches to recognize something they don’t believe in. Proponents deny that any law will affect religious marriage.

“If that’s true, why not marriages of three, four, five people,” Brown asked.

Meanwhile, supporters of changing the state’s marriage laws or introducing a civil union system, similar to the one in place in Vermont, said they will push for legislation next year as well.

Last session marked the third year in a row proponents have fought to open the marriage laws. Last year, legislators enacted a law that allows any person to legally designate another to make decisions for them, such as health care choices and organ donation.