Conservative fury at gay victory

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 the US where gay marriage is legal, but it happened only after a ferocious battle had put its government on virtual hold as the issue was fought.

The state's senate had debated and delayed it for weeks. It was eventually passed by just four votes, triggering celebrations by gay men and women, and 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 St, where the modern gay rights movement was born - people celebrated and danced in the streets.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg also welcomed the development: "Today we are stronger than we were yesterday."

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 heterosexuals in America.

New York's Democratic Governor, Andrew Cuomo, had made gay marriage a key pledge, but activists had to get a vote through the state's Republican-controlled 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."

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: "This victory sends a message that marriage equality across the country will be a reality very soon."

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 in the ballots. The National Organisation for Marriage swore to spend at least US$2 million ($2.5 million) 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."

New York's Roman Catholic Church has campaigned openly against the idea. "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.

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.

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