INDIANAPOLIS (AP): A state senator at the center of this year's legislative gay marriage battle is being honored by the conservative Indiana Family Institute.
 
Republican Sen. Mike Delph of Carmel was named lawmaker of the year by the group Thursday night at a fundraiser in Carmel. Gov. Mike Pence also headlined the fundraiser.
 
Delph himself became the focus of the marriage fight in the General Assembly earlier this year after a visceral online battle and subsequent Statehouse news conference where he accused legislative leaders of scuttling a constitutional marriage ban.
 
Social and religious conservatives fought unsuccessfully to put a ban on the November ballot.
 
Senate Republican leaders stripped Delph of his leadership position and forced him to sit next to Senate Democrats. The two sides disagree on why he was punished, however.