The Eurovision Song Contest is the world’s most watched annual TV program with an expected audience of over 100 million people. It is known for its kitsch songs, flash costumes and over the top performances…and this year is no exception!

The beginning of this year’s final resembles the opening of the Olympics as all 26 competing nations enter the arena waving their respective flags. They make their way along an elevated platform whilst a choir sings a new song written by Abba’s Bjorn and Benny especially for the contest.

Gay Star News is already the official global media partner for prides in London, Brighton and Manchester in the UK and EuroPride in Marseille, France. GSN will be at all the parades handing out stylish Gay Star News tote bags with loads of fab goodies.

Assaults on the LGBT community and incidents of homophobic hate speech have both risen sharply in France over the last year.

The number of calls to SOS Homophobie’s helpline were up by 27% on the previous year.

Homophobic hate crime spiked last year in the run-up to the French parliament's approval of a Bill allowing same-sex couples to marry and adopt children.

Incidents doubled in October and November when compared with the previous year, and tripled in December.

British gay singer/songwriter Mika will headline a free Paris to celebrate marriage equality in France.

According to French newspaper La Parisienne, Mika will headline the Long Live Equality concert to celebrate France’s gay marriage law that passed last month, and to reaffirm the importance of fighting homophobia.

A gay mayor in France is the latest politician to be sent death threats in the mail.

Thierry Speitel, mayor of Sigoldsheim in the Haut-Rhin area of eastern France, was sent bullets through the post this week over his equal marriage support.

Speitel, who is gay himself, said he was shocked by the incident and described the act as ‘odious’, The Local reports.

A gay marriage fair has been held in Paris for the first time, just four days after lawmakers voted for marriage equality.

French photographers, caterers, wedding planners, were just some of the businesses represented in a fair dedicated to the special moment when a same-sex couple ties the knot and says ‘I do’.

As an economic slump sees traditional couples spend less on weddings, French entrepreneurs look for gay marriage as an attractive business opportunity.

One of the strongest opponents to equal marriage in France has admitted to ‘accidentally’ voting for the bill.

Henri Guaino, from opposition party UMP, voted for the bill on Tuesday in the final vote on the ‘Marriage for All’ bill.

He has been extremely outspoken regarding the bill, with him writing a book calling for a referendum on gay marriage.

France was a nation of rioting and revelry as the country became the 14^th in the world to legalize gay marriage yesterday (23 April).

As the National Assembly passed the final vote, protest marches turned violent.

Stones, bottles and iron bars rained down on riot police units brought in to protect the Parisian parliament. They responded by firing tear gas at the protesters, and made 12 arrests.

‘If some people think that it’s over, we’ll show them that it is not finished,’ anti-gay leader Frigide Barjot told the crowd.

French police have readied water cannons in case protests against marriage equality become violent today (23 April).

The riot control devices are lining France’s National Assembly as lawmakers prepare for a final vote to legalize same-sex marriage.

Christophe Crepin, spokesman for the police union UNSA, told the Associated Press the extraordinary security is in place as a protection.

In recent weeks, homophobic attacks have spiked and some legislators have received threats.

A gay man was brutally beaten by a group of homophobic thugs in France on Saturday (20 April).

Raphaël Leclerc, 24, was punched, kicked and jumped on by three men when he and his boyfriend left a club in the city of Nice.

The incident comes just two weeks after another man was savagely attacked in Paris, whose picture went viral after being named the ‘face of homophobia’.

The head of the French parliament has received a letter containing gunpowder, ordering him to put off tomorrow’s vote on marriage equality.

Claude Bartolone, the Socialist President of France’s National Assembly, received the threatening letter today (22 April).

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