Hundreds of thousands of anti-gay marriage protestors are expected in Paris’s streets today.

Even though France became the 14th nation worldwide to legalize gay marriage this month, marriage equality opponents are taking to the streets again to protest the new law.

Police are on extra alert considering the violent history of anti-gay protests in recent months that developed into gruesome attacks and even deaths.

Some 4,500 armed police officers will be deployed to handle the potential violence that could ensue today.

The tone for today’s rally has been set in recent weeks with deaths in the name of heterosexual marriage and a racist anti-equality poster that some protestors say depicts the ‘destruction the [marriage equality] bill will bring to families.

As recently as this week, 78-year-old far right activist Dominique Venner killed himself in front of several tourists as his way of protesting the national legalization of same-sex marriage. Venner’s suicide has incited a renewed fight in anti-gay protesters.

Earlier this week, French Interior Minister Manuel Valls suggested banning a radical group known as Printemps franÃ§ais (French Spring) following their ‘unacceptable’ statements threatening violence on the government and its supporters.

According to French news site France24, police were put on tactical alert as early as Saturday evening, when approximately 50 anti-gay protestors were arrested for chaining themselves to barriers along the iconic avenue Champs-Elysees.



