Updated: 10:15 a.m. EDT
PARIS — Legions of officers and water cannon stood ready near France’s National Assembly ahead of a final vote Tuesday to legalize same-sex marriage, as authorities braced for possible violence on an issue that has unexpectedly divided the country and galvanized its faltering conservative movement.
In recent weeks, violent attacks against gay couples have spiked and some legislators have received threats – including one who got a gunpowder-filled envelope on Monday.
One of the biggest protests against same-sex marriage drew together hundreds of thousands of people bused in from the French provinces – conservative activists, schoolchildren with their parents, retirees, priests and others. That demonstration ended in blasts of tear gas, as right-wing rabble-rousers, some in masks and hoods, led the charge against police, damaging cars along the Champs-Elysees avenue and making a break for the presidential palace.
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When President Francois H ollande promised to legalize gay marriage, it was seen as relatively uncontroversial. But the issue has become a touchstone as his popularity has sunk to unprecedented lows, largely over France’s ailing economy. Hollande’s Socialists have a solid majority in the legislature, and the measure is expected to pass despite the opposition.
Justice Minister Christiane Taubira, speaking Tuesday ahead of the vote, told lawmakers that the first weddings could be as soon as June.
“We believe that the first weddings will be beautiful and that they’ll bring a breeze of joy, and that those who are opposed to them today will surely be confounded when they are overcome with the happiness of the newlyweds and the families,” she said.
But the most visible face in the fight against gay marriage – a former comedienne who goes by the name of Frigide Barjot – said the movement named “A Protest for Everyone” will continue beyond the law’s probable passage and possibly field candi dates in 2014 municipal elections. She said anyone involved in protest violence would be marginalized, but blamed the government for its failure to listen.
“The violence comes from the way in which this was imposed,” Barjot said in an interview Tuesday with France Info radio.
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Christophe Crepin, spokesman for the police union UNSA, says the extraordinary security Tuesday includes a total of about 4,000 officers in the area near the National Assembly building and water cannon positioned nearby. One group of anti-riot police swarmed the b anks of the Seine River about a quarter-mile from the legislature, hours before protests were scheduled there.
France would be the 14th country to legalize gay marriage. On the cover of Tuesday’s Liberation newspaper, the famed gay photographers Pierre and Gilles took over the front page and several of the inside pages, splashing them with some of their most provocative photos, including one of three soccer players – nude but for the footwear – facing the camera.
The vote is expected around 11:30 a.m. EDT.
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