France will hold its first same-sex marriage ceremony on Wednesday afternoon following heated protests that led to the arrests of almost 300 anti-gay demonstrators last Sunday.
Vincent Autin, 40, a gay rights activist, and Bruno Boileau, 30, will marry in front of a crowd of 500 family members, friends, activists, and journalists in a local event hall in Montpellier, a city in southern of France. A government minister will also be attendance, as will a beefed-up police contingent.
President Francois Hollande, who campaigned on the issue last year, signed same-sex marriage into law on May 18. France is the 14th country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage.
