A Twitter hashtag loosely translated as ‘Homosexuals must be killed’ is going viral before France’s National Assembly votes on gay marriage today (23 April).

It is unknown where ‘Il Faut Tuer Les Homosexuels’ started from, but thousands of social networking users are tweeting about the trending topic.

As Yagg.com points out, many are pointing to a user called Mamadou Neutron for the original tweet.

He has since deleted the tweet but continues to publish homophobic messages.

While some anti-gay Twitter users have just posted the hashtag, others have added messages like ‘Kill them all’ and ‘For a better world…’

Gay rights organization SOS Homophobie is inviting everyone to screen capture the homophobic tweets and send the pictures to them.

They wrote: ‘Waiting for your screen captures of homophobic tweets on Twitter #ilfauttuerleshomosexuels.’

As the National Assembly prepares their final vote, legions of French police and water cannons are being readied in case of violent protests.

Since the National Assembly and Senate both voted in favor same-sex marriage, homophobic attacks have spiked in France.

Gunpowder was sent in a death threat letter to the head of the French parliament, ordering him to postpone the final vote in the National Assembly.

The one-page letter warned: ‘You wanted war, and you’ve got it.’

On 19 April, the French President Francois Hollande warned anti-gay violence will be punished.

‘I cannot accept homophobic acts and violence against property in the midst of protests, or any defiance of law enforcement officials,’ he said.

‘Procedures must be respected, sensibilities must be respected, and everyone must be heard…But the law and parliament also need to be respected.’

UPDATE: France’s National Assembly has voted in favor of gay marriage and same-sex couples adopting children. Click here to read more.