North Carolina's Republican-led state Senate on Monday voted to override Gov. Pat McCrory's veto of a bill that would allow some court officials to refuse to perform same-sex marriages, Reuters reported.

McCrory, also a Republican, last week had refused to sign the legislation that gives magistrates and some register-of-deeds workers the option to avoid duties for marriages to which they have a "sincerely held religious objection."

By asking to be recused in writing, they would be barred from performing any union, gay or straight, for six months.

The governor had noted that he believed that public officials who swear to support and defend the Constitution and carry out their duties should not be exempt from upholding that oath, the Associated Press noted.

"I recognize that for many North Carolinians, including myself, opinions on same-sex marriage come from sincerely held religious beliefs that marriage is between a man and a woman," he said. "However, we are a nation and a state of laws."

But with the state senators voting 32-16 to throw out McCrory's veto, the bill now once again heads to the House of Representatives, which had passed it last week by a margin wide enough to override the veto. If it does so again, the legislation will become law in the Tar Heel State.

Supporters of the effort say it would offer needed protection for magistrates who refuse to perform same-sex marriages, which became legal in North Carolina last year after a U.S. District Court judge ruled that the state's ban on such unions was unconstitutional.

"Really the question is: Should you be fired from a job or subject to disciplinary action because you choose to live your life by sincerely held religious beliefs?" Republican Rep. Dean Arp told Reuters.

But opponents, such as Democratic Rep. Grier Martin, compare the legislation to the "separate but equal" principle once used to segregate students by race, the newswire noted.

"This sets up a separate system of marriage," Martin argued. "We've tried 'separate but equal' before in this state; it did not work then, and it does not work now."