“I changed it because I’m trying to be a compassionate person and do the right thing,” McDonald said. “I think it was the appropriate thing to do.”
 
The GOP senator’s decision came just a couple of hours after Governor Andrew Cuomo released his bill to legalize same sex marriage, and follows announcements by four other senators that they
also favor the bill. Just one vote is needed for approval of gay marriage in New York.
Advocates pulled in New York Rangers star Sean Avery and actress Cynthia Nixon to lobby for gay marriage. Nixon has been engaged for two years and said she’s tired of waiting to be married in her home state, telling undecided GOP Senators, “it’s OK to change your mind."
 
“And I think that’s what we’re starting to see,” Nixon added.
 
The Reverend Jason McGuire, who lobbies for evangelical Christian churches, said Senate Republicans, if they allow a vote, are walking away from their core values.
 
“They little by little have been selling out their principles that the party is supposed to stand for,” McGuire said. “And this is the line in in the sand”.
 
The Senate GOP is now set to conference gay marriage Wednesday.