Two young students kiss in front of astonished anti-marriage for all protesters. The rally, organized by the VITA Alliance, an association against abortion and gay marriage, took place in Marseille on October 23, 2012. Without knowing it, AFP photographer Gérard Julien has just captured the image that will symbolize support for marriage for all: The "Kiss of Marseille." Other kisses will appear in the processions to defend the bill, voted definitively ten years ago, on April 23, 2013. Explanations and kisses in pictures.


Director: Olivier JUSZCZAK

  • On October 23, 2012, in Marseille, AFP photographer Gérard Julien covers a demonstration of the VITA Alliance against the bill to legalize marriage and adoption for homosexual couples. This association campaigns against abortion and gay marriage.

  • "I was taking pictures in the middle of the demonstrators, in the square in front of the prefecture, when I saw two young women in their twenties. They stopped and kissed passionately on the mouth in front of everyone," the photographer said in an AFP making-of. "Everyone was taken by surprise. The demonstrators were totally glued! " he adds. He takes a few pictures and the "Baiser de Marseille" becomes a viral image! The two young students, Julia and Auriane, present themselves as heterosexual and non-militant.

  • The iconography of the kiss between two people of the same sex is taken up as the symbol of support for marriage for all.

  • In all the rallies in support of the bill presented on November 7, 2012 by the Minister of Justice Christiane Taubira, photographers capture this suspended moment.

  • Here, we find a new shot by photographer Gérard Julien, still in Marseille, next to a demonstration of opponents of gay marriage, November 17, 2012.

  • This kiss also represents an anti-discrimination act of citizenship.

  • It can also take a more offbeat and humorous form!

  • On January 13, 2013, "La Manif pour tous", opposed to marriage for all, gathered more than 300,000 people in Paris. Obviously, the kiss is a way to affirm one's disagreement with the organizers of this gathering.

  • Between 125,000 and 400,000 people march in Paris to defend the marriage equality bill, January 27, 2013.

  • On 29 January, the debate began in the National Assembly.

  • On 23 April, the law was definitively adopted in the National Assembly with 331 votes in favour, 225 votes against and 10 abstentions.

  • After the validation of the Constitutional Council, François Hollande promulgated the law on May 17, 2013.

  • And it is naturally with a kiss that the first official homosexual marriage is celebrated, on May 29, in Montpellier.

  • Bouches-du-Rhône
  • Slideshow
  • LGBT+ Movement
  • Marriage
  • Marriage for all
  • Marseille
  • PACA
  • Photo
  • Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur