Two days after the New York State Senate voted to legalize same-sex marriage, members of the LGBT community participated in New York’s 42nd annual gay pride parade on Sunday. However, a ton of the cheering was aimed at Governor Andrew Cuomo. Find out why after the jump!!

@ItsLukieBaby

(NYTimes)– It was a noisy, and jubilant, day in the West Village.

Much of the cheering was aimed at Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat, who made legalization of same-sex marriage a part of his election campaign and then led the fight for its approval in the Republican-controlled Senate.

Mr. Cuomo was the parade’s rock star, eliciting loud cheers and shrieks as he made his way down Fifth Avenue; the roar became almost deafening as the parade turned onto the narrow Christopher Street. People who arrived early enough to stand along the edge of the streets leaned over metal police barriers to get a glimpse of the governor or to catch the attention of the cameras following him. With Mr. Cuomo were Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, as well as several other local politicians.

“Finally we got someone who does what he believes in,” said Chuck Sawyer, 49, a fund-raiser for the American Lung Association, who added that he and his partner would probably get married in late summer. “He’s been doing what he said he’d do. A lot of past governors and even the president haven’t come through. He did.”

Revelers along the route, which ran down Fifth Avenue from 35th Street and then west past the Stonewall Inn, the birthplace of the gay rights movement, held up thousands of printed signs reading “Promise Kept!” and “Thank You Gov. Cuomo.” Mayor Bloomberg waved a rainbow flag.

Mr. Cuomo seemed to bask in the crowd’s attention, beaming and pointing out individuals along the route.

“I’ve been to the parade many times, and there’s always a lot of energy and it’s always been a ball, but this was special,” he said, as he stepped out of the parade on Christopher Street. “I think you’re going to see this message resonate all across the country now. If New York can do it, it’s O.K. for every other place to do it.”

In a rare public appearance with the governor, Mr. Cuomo’s girlfriend, Sandra Lee, a celebrity chef who has an openly gay brother, marched by his side, wearing a sleeveless white dress. Ms. Lee figured into Mr. Cuomo’s deliberations over same-sex marriage, according to those who know the couple: she repeatedly reminded him that she wanted the law changed.

Several participants carried hand-lettered signs thanking by name Republican senators who voted for the legislation.

Former Gov. David A. Paterson, who championed a same-sex-marriage bill that was defeated nearly two years ago when Democrats had a majority in the Senate, marched a few blocks behind Mr. Cuomo. He held a blue poster in his hands that read “Thank you Gov. Cuomo.”

Earlier in the day, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, a Republican, rejected the notion that New York’s acceptance of same-sex marriage would spread to his state.

“I believe marriage should be between one man and one woman,” Mr. Christie said on the NBC News program “Meet the Press.” “I wouldn’t sign a bill like the one that was in New York.”

For Lisa Guadalupe and Lissette Conti, who came to the march with their three children, the parade on Sunday capped a week of highs and lows as they watched lawmakers labor over the marriage bill. “It’s been crazy,” said Ms. Conti, a home health aide. “I’d get happy, then sad, then I didn’t want to get too happy because I was afraid it wouldn’t pass. I held my breath for the longest time, then I screamed.”

For now, though, the couple said they have no immediate plans to marry. “That costs money,” Ms. Conti said. “I want a nice big church wedding.”