SEATTLE (AP) – Mayor Greg Nickels announced Sunday that the city will begin recognizing the marriages of gay employees who get their unions licensed elsewhere – a privilege he’ll ask the City Council to extend to all Seattle residents.

“Beginning tomorrow, we’re going to give everyone who works for the City who has been married equal rights regardless of whether they are straight or gay,” the mayor said in a statement provided to The Associated Press.

An executive Nickels said he would sign on Monday will require all city departments to grant city employees in same-sex marriages the same rights heterosexual married couples get.

An ordinance Nickels is sending to the City Council would extend that recognition to Seattle residents with marriage licenses, regardless of their sexual orientation.

“The basic message is one of fairness, and that is that people who are willing to make a commitment to one another, who love one another, and who are willing to take on the responsibilities of marriage ought to be able to, regardless of their gender,” Nickels told the AP on Sunday.

Nickels supports gay marriage, but because counties – not cities – issue marriage licenses in Washington state, he has said he lacks the legal authority to issue same-sex marriage licenses like mayors in San Francisco and New Paltz, N.Y., have done.

King County Executive Ron Sims, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, favors gay marriage but has said his hands are tied by a state law and would not follow the lead of Multnomah County in Oregon, which began issuing marriage licenses to gay couples last week.

Washington state lawmakers passed a “Defense of Marriage Act” in 1998, making Washington one of 38 states defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Gov. Gary Locke vetoed the law, but lawmakers overrode the veto.

Seattle has offered domestic partnership benefits to its employees since 1989, but that process requires workers to fill out extensive paperwork – a step same-sex couples will be able to skip under the executive order Nickels was to sign Monday.

The ordinance Nickels said he would send to the City Council on Monday defines “spouse,” as a husband or wife in a same-sex or opposite-sex marriage.

If the council approves the ordinance, it would protect gay married couples throughout the city from discrimination in employment, housing or the use of parks or other city facilities. It would also bar contractors doing business with the city to from discriminating against people based on their marital status.

Nickels said he’s hopeful the council will pass the ordinance.

“Seattle, I believe, has always been a very tolerant city, one that believes in basic fairness and defending the rights of people,” Nickels said, “and I think there will be strong support for this action.”

Rick Forcier, head of the state Christian Coalition, called Nickels’ plan a clear violation of state law.

“What he’s about to do is anarchy – taking the law into his own hands,” Forcier said.

“We have to have uniform laws,” he added. “People cannot be recognized as married in one jurisdiction and not in another. … He’s pretending to recognize counterfeit licenses that will have no value.”

Nickels said he views marriage as a fundamental constitutional right, one he believes will prevail when courts across the country have their final say.

“I think ultimately, the courts are going to rule in favor of the mayors across the country who have taken action.”

Nickels, City Councilman Tom Rasmussen, State Rep. Ed Murray, D-Seattle – one of four openly gay men in the Legislature – and his partner, Michael Shiosaki, planned a Monday morning news conference to discuss the gay marriage issue.