Free Republic

(Reuters) - Serbia's government banned gay activists from marching in Belgrade for the third year running on Friday, citing a threat to public safety from right-wing hooligans but risking EU condemnation before the expected start of accession talks. The last Gay Pride march in 2010 triggered a day of rioting by right-wing nationalists in the capital, Belgrade. Western ambassadors had heaped pressure on Serbia to allow this year's event to go ahead on Saturday, as a litmus test of the Balkan country's commitment to tolerance and diversity. The EU is due to launch membership talks in January. But after a...

Vladimir Putin's government wants to promote 'traditional Russian values' over what it sees as western liberalism and tolerance. Photograph: Mikhail Klimentyev/AP Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, has signed into law a measure that stigmatises gay people and bans giving children any information about homosexuality. The lower house of Russia's parliament unanimously passed the Kremlin-backed bill on 11 June and the upper house approved it last week. The Kremlin announced on Sunday that Putin had signed the legislation into law. The ban on "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations" is part of an effort to promote traditional Russian values over western liberalism, which...

Appearing on Bloomberg News, Sen. Hillary Clinton: "Well I've heard from a number of my friends and I've certainly clarified with them any misunderstanding that anyone had, because I disagree with General Pace completely. I do not think homosexuality is immoral. But the point I was trying to make is that this policy of Don't Ask, Don't Tell is not working. I have been against it for many years because I think it does a grave injustice to patriotic Americans who want to serve their country. And so I have called for its repeal and I'd like to follow the...