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Republicans in New York senate who agreed with reform now face onslaught from embittered members of their own party Gay rights activists in America were celebrating yesterday after New York became the biggest state in the country to allow same-sex couples to marry. It has become the sixth state in America where gay marriage is legal, but this only happened after a ferocious battle that had put its government on virtual hold as the issue was fought over. The nail-biting decision in the state’s senate had been debated and delayed for weeks and was eventually passed by just four votes late on Friday, in a move that triggered celebrations by gay men and women and their supporters. The first gay weddings are expected to be held in the state in just 30 days. On the streets of the West Village in Manhattan – and especially around the gay-friendly pubs and clubs of Christopher Street, where the modern gay rights movement was born – people celebrated and danced in the streets. Crowds of gay and straight people sang and cheered as the news spread. Mayor Michael Bloomberg also welcomed the development. “Today we are stronger than we were yesterday,” he said. Gay rights activists had focused on New York as the biggest battle so far in their continuing fight to give gay couples the same rights and status as heterosexual ones in America. It became a powerful symbolic battleground for both gay people and their opponents, especially as several high-profile Republican presidential candidates are using the issue in their nascent campaigns. New York’s Democratic governor, Andrew Cuomo, had made gay marriage a key pledge, but activists had to get a vote through the Republican-controlled state senate. Huge efforts were put into persuading a handful of wavering Republicans to join Democrats in passing the law. One of them, Stephen Saland, had voted against gay marriage in 2009, but gave a speech outlining his change of heart. “My intellectual and emotional journey has ended here today and I have to find doing the right thing as treating all persons with equality,” he said. Another senator, Mark Grisanti, explained his motives for going back on a campaign vow to oppose the move. “I cannot deny a person, a human being, a taxpayer, a worker, the same rights I have with my wife,” he said. The move made New York’s senate the first Republican-controlled legislative body in America to vote in favour of gay marriage. It is a huge win for gay rights groups, who poured millions of dollars and thousands of hours’ work into the campaign. Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said: “History was made today in New York. This victory sends a message that marriage equality across the country will be a reality very soon.” Others pointed out the huge difference it will make to gay New Yorkers’ personal lives. Herndon Graddick, a senior director at the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, said: “At the heart of this vote are loving and committed New Yorkers who simply want the same thing all Americans want: the ability to take care of the people they love and to protect their families.” However, the fight in America is far from over. While New York joins the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa and Vermont, as well as Washington DC, as places where gay marriage is legal, in most parts of the country the issue remains fraught. California and Maine allowed same-sex marriage, only to have critics fight back and outlaw it again. Opponents of gay marriage vowed to do the same in New York and promised that Republicans who had helped pass the vote would pay for it at the ballots. The National Organisation for Marriage swore to spend at least $2m (£1.25m) in 2012 campaigning against Republicans who had switched sides. “Politicians who campaign one way on marriage, and then vote the other, need to understand: betraying and misleading voters has consequences, too. We are not giving up, we will continue to fight to protect marriage in New York,” said the NOM president, Brian Brown. Other NOM officials fumed at the state’s Republican party in language reflecting feelings of anger and betrayal. “The New York Republican party is dysfunctional,” said NOM chairwoman Maggie Gallagher. “The Republican party in New York is responsible for passing gay marriage, and sadly it’s the families of New York who will pay the worst price of the new government-backed redefinition of marriage.” Opponents of gay marriage have been largely social conservatives and religious groups. New York’s Roman Catholic church has campaigned openly against the idea, drawing criticism from liberal commentators, who contrast its concern for the poor and other vulnerable minorities with its attitudes towards gay people. But church leaders were not backing down. “The passage by the legislature of a bill to alter radically and forever humanity’s historic understanding of marriage leaves us deeply disappointed and troubled,” said the New York State Catholic Conference in a statement. But even that organisation seemed to tacitly admit that, in New York at least, the tide of history and public opinion was turning against it when it came to believing that marriage could only be between a man and a woman. “This definition cannot change, though we realise that our beliefs about the nature of marriage will continue to be ridiculed,” it added in the statement. In recent years the issue of gay marriage has become one of the biggest topics in American politics. Supporters have framed it as a modern civil rights issue continuing the tradition of the 1960s movement to get voting rights for black Americans. Opponents, however, have seen it as an attack on traditional values and conservatives have successfully used it as a rallying cry to mobilise their base. Republicans have used proposals to ban gay marriage to bring out conservative voters. Leading politicians, such as presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, have made their anti-gay marriage attitudes a cornerstone of their agenda. However, the vote in New York represents a big victory for Cuomo, a rising star of the Democratic party. Though he has been criticised by progressives for being too hard on trade unions in seeking to curb state spending, passing gay marriage will help to cement his support among liberals. It will also contrast with the official position of President Barack Obama. Many gay voters supported Obama in his 2008 election campaign but have since been disappointed by his refusal to back gay marriage. Just last week Obama faced angry gay supporters at a New York political fundraiser where he failed to publicly back the state’s planned law. Critics of his position say Obama is unwilling to risk alienating the political centre in 2012 by embracing gay marriage. New York Gay rights United States Catholicism Paul Harris guardian.co.uk