New York state senate Democrats may have secured control of their chamber by bargaining away marriage equality on Thursday.

Since Election Day, when Democrats won a two-seat majority in the chamber after decades of Republican rule, three conservative members of the caucus had threatened to defect to the GOP unless they received more power. But a handshake deal in New York City apparently gave the holdouts what they wanted, the New York Times reports. For one, senator Ruben Diaz Sr. of the Bronx, the concessions may have included postponing a vote on marriage equality until 2010 at the earliest, according to the paper.

New York assembly member Daniel J. O’Donnell, who is gay and carried a same-sex marriage bill that passed his chamber in 2007, told the Times that he expects momentum to continue for marriage equality regardless of what transpired. “All civil rights movements have moments where they move forward, and moments of perceived setbacks,” O’Donnell, who represents Manhattan, told the paper. “If in fact our civil rights were bargained away, that’s deplorable. But in the end, I think justice and fairness will prevail.”

Alan Van Capelle, head of Empire State Pride Agenda, said he and his team were awaiting more details about the deal. ”We would expect that any rumors that marriage equality was somehow a part of this deal are just that — rumors,” Van Capelle said in a statement. But, he cautioned, “civil rights should never be a bargaining chip in any political leadership battle, and we would be outraged if the issue of marriage equality was even part of the discussions.”

A same-sex marriage bill has yet to pass New York’s senate. (The Advocate)