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PARIS (TheBlaze/AP) — France legalized gay marriage on Tuesday after a wrenching national debate and protests that flooded the streets of Paris. Legions of officers and water cannon stood ready near France’s National Assembly ahead of the final vote, bracing for possible violence on an issue that galvanized the country’s faltering conservative movement.

The measure passed easily in the Socialist-majority Assembly, 331-225, just minutes after the president of the legislative body expelled a disruptive protester in pink, the color adopted by French opponents of gay marriage.

“Only those who love democracy are here,” Claude Bartelone, the Assembly president, said angrily.

Picture taken on April 23, 2013 in Paris shows an illustration made with plastic figurines of men in front of the Palais Bourbon, the seat of the French National Assembly. After months of acrimonious debate and hundreds of protests that have occasionally spilled over into violence, France’s National Assembly is due to approve today a bill making the country the 14th to legalise same-sex marriage.Credit: AFP/Getty Images

In recent weeks, violent attacks against gay couples have spiked and some legislators have received threats – including Bartelone, 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 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.

Justice Minister Christiane Taubira 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.

When President Francois Hollande 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.

Pro gay marriage activists celebrate with Champagne after French lawmakers legalized same-sex marriage, Tuesday, April 23, 2013. Lawmakers legalized same-sex marriage after months of bruising debate and street protests that brought hundreds of thousands to Paris. Tuesday’s 331-225 vote came in the Socialist majority National Assembly. France’s justice minister, Christiane Taubira, said the first weddings could be as soon as June. Poster reads: Medically Assisted Reproduction.Credit: AP

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France Legalizes Gay Marriage Following Intense Threats, Protests and Angst