JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Members of the Missouri Legislature’s new Equality Caucus are blasting a St. Louis-area state senator for her support of a recent vote regarding with marriage between a man and a woman.

Sen. Karla May, D-St. Louis, joined GOP senators to vote against the amendment, which was partly symbolic, still forced senators to go on record over the issue.

Except for May, the vote was along party lines: 19 to 6 with 9 senators not voting.

“There were a lot of Republicans who voted against the possibility of removing the same-sex marriage ban from Missouri statutes,” said State Rep. Wick Thomas, a Democrat and organizer of the new Equality Caucus. He called the vote “a large part” of why lawmakers gathered at a recent news conference to push for the new caucus. “Anyone in this body who would vote against that love and those marriages, is troubling to me.”

State Rep. Elizabeth Fuchs, a constituent of May and fellow Democrat, was more blunt in her criticism of the senator, calling it “very disappointing.”

“What was most disappointing was that she has been a champion for equity,” Fuchs. “She has been a champion for us.”

Fuchs said she had conversations with May, a youth pastor at a Christian church in St. Louis, over the issue.

“That’s why it was so extremely disappointing,” she said. “Because when we needed you the most, we saw we were let down.”

May has not publicly addressed the issue and attempts for a comment have not been successful. The proposed amendment that she voted on was part of a Senate bill dealing with a variety of matters that are under sunset, requiring action from lawmakers.

Fuchs says what the LGBTQ community needs is for allies to be vocal.

“I think there was an opportunity to say, ‘My deeply held religious beliefs as a preacher of the gospel,’ which is what she told me, ‘didn’t allow for me to vote for marriage equality,'” Fuchs said. “And that is what we would have hoped the senator could have done.”